com.sun.el.parser.ParseException: Encountered “(” at line when running selenium

i am trying to run selenium test on jetty with gradle, and my gradle configuration is as follows:

build.gradle:

apply plugin: 'java'
    apply plugin: 'eclipse-wtp'
    apply plugin: 'war'
    apply plugin: 'findbugs'
    apply from: 'emma.gradle'
    apply plugin: 'jetty'
          sourceCompatibility = 1.7
    version = ''
          sourceSets {
     selenium
    }
          buildscript {
     repositories {
      mavenCentral()
     }
           dependencies {
      classpath 'org.gradle.api.plugins:gradle-cargo-plugin:0.6'
     }
    }
          repositories {
     mavenCentral()
     mavenRepo url: 'http://repository.primefaces.org'
     mavenRepo url: 'http://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/groups/public'
        mavenRepo url: 'http://repository.jboss.org/maven2'
     mavenRepo url: 'http://maven.springframework.org/release'
     mavenRepo url: 'http://repo1.maven.org/maven2'
     mavenRepo url: 'http://git.solutionstream.com/nexus/content/repositories/thirdparty'
    }
          dependencies {
     //JSF
     compile group: 'com.sun.faces', name: 'jsf-api', version: '2.1.22'
     compile group: 'com.sun.faces', name: 'jsf-impl', version: '2.1.22'
     compile 'org.ocpsoft.rewrite:rewrite-servlet:2.0.3.Final'
     compile 'org.ocpsoft.rewrite:rewrite-config-prettyfaces:2.0.3.Final'
                   //Servlet
     compile group: 'javax.servlet', name: 'jstl', version: '1.2'
     providedCompile group: 'org.jboss.spec', name: 'jboss-javaee-6.0', version: '1.0.0.Final'
     compile 'taglibs:standard:1.1.2'
     compile group: 'org.springframework', name: 'spring-web', version: '3.2.2.RELEASE'
               //Omnifaces
     compile 'org.omnifaces:omnifaces:1.5'
            //Prime Faces
     compile group: 'org.primefaces', name: 'primefaces', version: '4.0-SNAPSHOT'
     compile 'org.primefaces.themes:bootstrap:1.0.10'
            // DB
     compile group: 'org.springframework.data', name: 'spring-data-jpa', version: '1.3.1.RELEASE'
     compile group: 'org.springframework', name: 'spring-aspects', version: '3.2.2.RELEASE'
     compile group: 'mysql', name: 'mysql-connector-java', version: '5.1.9'
            compile group: 'javax.inject', name: 'javax.inject', version: '1'
     compile group: 'javax.enterprise', name: 'cdi-api', version: '1.0-SP4'
     compile 'cglib:cglib-nodep:2.2.2'
              //Hibernate / JPA
      compile 'org.hibernate:hibernate-core:4.1.0.Final'
     compile 'org.hibernate:hibernate-entitymanager:4.1.0.Final'
     compile 'org.hibernate.javax.persistence:hibernate-jpa-2.0-api:1.0.1.Final'
     //JSR-303
     compile 'org.hibernate:hibernate-validator:4.3.1.Final'
            // Spring Security
     compile 'org.springframework.security:spring-security-core:3.1.4.RELEASE'
     compile 'org.springframework.security:spring-security-web:3.1.4.RELEASE'
     compile 'org.springframework.security:spring-security-config:3.1.4.RELEASE'
            //Utility
     compile 'com.google.guava:guava:14.0.1'
     compile 'commons-lang:commons-lang:2.6'
     compile 'org.apache.commons:commons-email:1.3.1'
     compile 'com.typesafe:config:1.0.0'
     compile 'joda-time:joda-time:2.2'
     compile 'org.apache.geronimo.javamail:geronimo-javamail_1.4_mail:1.8.3'
     compile 'org.slf4j:slf4j-api:1.7.2'
     compile 'org.slf4j:jcl-over-slf4j:1.7.2'
     compile 'org.slf4j:slf4j-log4j12:1.7.2'
                   //Mustache Templates
     compile 'com.github.jknack:handlebars:1.0.0'
           //Projects
     //compile project(":ExtraValidators")
            ////TESTING DEPENDENCIES
     testCompile 'com.googlecode.jmockit:jmockit:1.2'
     testCompile group: 'junit', name: 'junit', version: '4.11'
     testCompile 'com.h2database:h2:1.3.172'
            //Spring Testing
     testCompile 'org.springframework:spring-test:3.2.3.RELEASE'
            /* Selenium */
     seleniumCompile 'org.seleniumhq.selenium:selenium-java:2.33.0'
     seleniumCompile 'junit:junit:4.11'
    }
          task wrapper(type: Wrapper){
     gradleVersion = '1.5'
    }
          eclipse {
        classpath {
           downloadSources=true
           plusConfigurations += configurations.seleniumCompile
        }
    }
                task jettyDaemon(type: org.gradle.api.plugins.jetty.JettyRun) {
     daemon = true
    }
          task selenium(type: Test, dependsOn: jettyDaemon) {
     testClassesDir = sourceSets.selenium.output.classesDir
     classpath = sourceSets.selenium.runtimeClasspath
    }

Test class:

public class HomeTest {
            static WebDriver driver;
           @BeforeClass
     public static void before() {
      driver = new FirefoxDriver();
     }
           @AfterClass
     public static void after() {
      driver.close();
     }
            @Test
     public void testLoadHomePage() {
      driver.get("http://localhost:8080/MyApp/index.xhtml");
     }
          }

CASE:when trying to run selenium with command ‘gradle clean selenium’ the test method is accessed and the web page is loaded, but then i get the exception:

com.sun.el.parser.ParseException: Encountered "(" at line 1, column 25.
    Was expecting one of:
        "}" ...
        "." ...
        "[" ...
        ">" ...
        "gt" ...
        "<" ...
        "lt" ...
        ">=" ...
        "ge" ...
        "<=" ...
        "le" ...
        "==" ...
        "eq" ...
        "!=" ...
        "ne" ...
        "&&" ...
        "and" ...
        "||" ...
        "or" ...
        "*" ...
        "+" ...
        "-" ...
        "?" ...
        "/" ...
        "div" ...
        "%" ...
        "mod" ...
                  at com.sun.el.parser.ELParser.generateParseException(ELParser.java:1664)
            at com.sun.el.parser.ELParser.jj_consume_token(ELParser.java:1544)
            at com.sun.el.parser.ELParser.DeferredExpression(ELParser.java:147)
            at com.sun.el.parser.ELParser.CompositeExpression(ELParser.java:74)
            at com.sun.el.lang.ExpressionBuilder.createNodeInternal(ExpressionBuilder.java:139)
            at com.sun.el.lang.ExpressionBuilder.build(ExpressionBuilder.java:188)
            at com.sun.el.lang.ExpressionBuilder.createValueExpression(ExpressionBuilder.java:232)
            at com.sun.el.ExpressionFactoryImpl.createValueExpression(ExpressionFactoryImpl.java:92)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.el.ELText$ELTextVariable.apply(ELText.java:203)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.el.ELText$ELTextComposite.apply(ELText.java:184)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.compiler.CommentInstruction.apply(CommentInstruction.java:81)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.compiler.UIInstructionHandler.apply(UIInstructionHandler.java:141)
            at javax.faces.view.facelets.CompositeFaceletHandler.apply(CompositeFaceletHandler.java:95)
            at javax.faces.view.facelets.DelegatingMetaTagHandler.applyNextHandler(DelegatingMetaTagHandler.java:137)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.tag.jsf.ComponentTagHandlerDelegateImpl.apply(ComponentTagHandlerDelegateImpl.java:187)
            at javax.faces.view.facelets.DelegatingMetaTagHandler.apply(DelegatingMetaTagHandler.java:120)
            at javax.faces.view.facelets.CompositeFaceletHandler.apply(CompositeFaceletHandler.java:95)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.tag.jsf.core.ViewHandler.apply(ViewHandler.java:188)
            at javax.faces.view.facelets.CompositeFaceletHandler.apply(CompositeFaceletHandler.java:95)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.compiler.NamespaceHandler.apply(NamespaceHandler.java:93)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.compiler.EncodingHandler.apply(EncodingHandler.java:87)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.impl.DefaultFacelet.include(DefaultFacelet.java:320)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.impl.DefaultFacelet.include(DefaultFacelet.java:379)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.impl.DefaultFacelet.include(DefaultFacelet.java:358)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.impl.DefaultFaceletContext.includeFacelet(DefaultFaceletContext.java:199)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.tag.ui.CompositionHandler.apply(CompositionHandler.java:155)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.compiler.NamespaceHandler.apply(NamespaceHandler.java:93)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.compiler.EncodingHandler.apply(EncodingHandler.java:87)
            at com.sun.faces.facelets.impl.DefaultFacelet.apply(DefaultFacelet.java:164)
            at com.sun.faces.application.view.FaceletViewHandlingStrategy.buildView(FaceletViewHandlingStrategy.java:906)
            at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.RenderResponsePhase.execute(RenderResponsePhase.java:99)
            at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.Phase.doPhase(Phase.java:101)
            at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.render(LifecycleImpl.java:139)
            at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:594)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(ServletHolder.java:511)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.handle(ServletHandler.java:390)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.security.SecurityHandler.handle(SecurityHandler.java:216)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.SessionHandler.handle(SessionHandler.java:182)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.handle(ContextHandler.java:765)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext.handle(WebAppContext.java:440)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandlerCollection.handle(ContextHandlerCollection.java:230)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerCollection.handle(HandlerCollection.java:114)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:152)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.Server.handle(Server.java:326)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection.handleRequest(HttpConnection.java:542)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection$RequestHandler.headerComplete(HttpConnection.java:926)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpParser.parseNext(HttpParser.java:549)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpParser.parseAvailable(HttpParser.java:212)
            at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection.handle(HttpConnection.java:404)
            at org.mortbay.io.nio.SelectChannelEndPoint.run(SelectChannelEndPoint.java:410)
            at org.mortbay.thread.QueuedThreadPool$PoolThread.run(QueuedThreadPool.java:582)

please advise, how to fix this exception.