Israel Matzav

1,600 Jews pray at Joseph's tomb

Sorry about the last few hours - I crashed.

Some 200 Jews 'infiltrated' the town of Shchem (Nablus) on Sunday night and went to pray at Joseph's tomb. 50 of them attempted to stay in the tomb and clashed with the IDF.

According to Army Radio, the infiltrators called for Israel to retake control over the area.

"This behavior risks lives and leads to the unnecessary risking of soldiers' lives who were forced to act even in daylight in the center of Nablus," the statement added.

Overnight Sunday, Palestinian filed complaints about property damage which will be looked into.

"The IDF sees the behavior of the infiltrators as severely irresponsible and it will be examined in cooperation with various security forces, who will also check the nature of the security over the entrance to Joseph's Tomb for the future," the IDF spokesperson said.

In related news, about 1600 worshippers entered Joseph's Tomb Sunday night under the approval of the IDF. Due to high demand to visit the Tomb, the number of buses to the destination were doubled.

But Arutz Sheva writes that the real story was the 1,600 Jews who entered with the IDF's permission.

The IDF approved the pilgrimage in honor of the special "Yesod she'byesod" day of the Omer counting, which is considered to be a special "Joseph" day. It was held five weeks after Palestinian Authority soldiers intentionally shot at Jewish worshipers at the holy site, killing Ben Yosef Livnat.

Let's go to the videotape.



For the record, under the 'Oslo Accords,' designated Jewish Holy sites, including Joseph's tomb, are supposed to remain under Israeli control. That has not been the case since defenseless defense minister Ehud Barak - who was Prime Minister at the time - ordered an IDF soldier to be abandoned to bleed to death rather than offend the 'Palestinians.' That incident took place on the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanna, 5761 (in the fall of 2000).

It's bad enough that we make one-sided deals in favor of these beasts, we could at least keep the few things in the deals that are in our favor.

Labels: IDF, Joseph's tomb, Shchem

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:43 AM