Apr 25, 2011

Joseph's Tomb

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He had said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place." (Exo 13:19)
For a thousand years, Jews had prayed at and cared for the Tomb of the Patriarch Joseph. The Samaritans had worshipped at the Tomb for 1,700 years.

On October 7, 2000, Ehud Barak ordered Israeli Border Police to withdraw from guarding the Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus (Shechem). Within hours it was destroyed. Since then there has been a pattern of the IDF escorting religious Jews to clean up the destruction, and then more desecration after they leave.
The bones of Joseph which the Children of Israel brought up from Egypt were buried in Shechem in the portion of the field that had been purchased by Jacob. (Joshua 24:32)



UPDATE: Early Sunday morning, as 15 ultra-orthodox Jews left the Tomb after Passover prayers, a Palestinian policeman opened fire on their 3 vehicles. Several men were wounded, and the 25 year old nephew of an Israeli Government Minister was killed.


UPDATE:In retaliation for the murder of a Jewish worshiper and the wounding of 5 others, last night at Joseph's Tomb, by official Palestinian Authority "policeman", dozens of Palestinians are rioting and burning down Joseph's Tomb in the middle of PA occupied Shechem/Nablus. (Israeli Radio, Channel B)
YNET interviewed one of the worshipers:
One of the Breslovers who was in the second car in the convoy and was lightly wounded told Ynet: "We arrived at the tomb like on many occasions in the past. Near the tomb we saw a spikes chain. One of the guys jumped out of the car and moved it aside.
"At this point a uniformed Palestinian police officer with a Kalashnikov in a jeep woke his colleagues up and they started firing into the air…I was in the front seat. We started driving fast in the direction of the tomb; we got out of the vehicles and kissed the tomb.
"When we got back to the vehicles the police shot at the vehicles, they were screaming 'Allahu Akbar'. ["Allah, The god of Islam, is great" -- the Islamic battle cry traditionally screamed before massacring infidels] It was crazy, they were shooting to kill. I screamed at the driver to drive out of there quickly. When we got to Har Bracha we attended to the wounded." (Ynet)
Haaretz was quick to write:
"The main problem is that they [the Israelis] entered the city without coordination," said Jibril al-Bakri, the Palestinian governor of Nablus.
I thought the main problem was the PA police yelling "Allahu Akbar" and then opening fire at unarmed Jewish worshipers.
Silly me. Jameel, Israeli Blogger,  The Big  Peace
Palestinians are once again burning Joseph's Tomb

10 comments:

  1. MM: I have heard you state that you are not doing political posts on the middle east, only historic archeological posts. By only covering the evils committed by one side you are taking a strong and biased political stand!

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  2. Mr. Molovinsky,
    With respect to these Holy Days,
    may we send regards to you and yours.
    Also, would you allow under another Monday morning blog entry, our comments regarding yesterday's
    ASD member's entry? Today's
    religious commentary is not an appropriate forum for local school dialogue.

    ReplyDelete
  3. gary, although these hasidics did not arrange for a IDF security escort, there is no justification for shooting people as they leave a place of worship. I don't consider it political.

    anon 6:51, post your comments under zimmerman speaks out

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  4. Ledebur is right.

    "The army said in an e-mail the Israelis had failed to inform soldiers of their intention to enter Palestinian-controlled territory as required by law."

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-24/netanyahu-calls-easter-shooting-of-israeli-criminal-seeks-investigation.html

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  5. anon 8:10, I assume that you're being facetious about ledebur being right. it is true that this group of hasids did not arrange for the official IDF escort with palestinian coordination, but they often didn't. although that lack of arrangement may have given the shooter an excuse, clearly these worshippers were not hostile invaders. i report this as a crime occurring at one of the tombs that i have featured on this blog. the actual post on Joseph's Tomb is reprinted from July 11, 2010. unfortunately, sunday's shooting is new.

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  6. MM:

    When you post something that is not hostile to the Palestinians, I will believe you are impartially reporting historical archeological events! Until then this blog is clearly pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian.

    Today this blog is political and you have a dog in this fight!

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  7. 8:10 here. No, I am not being facetious. Ledebur is right. The shooting, though tragic, was a mistake. According to a Palestinian news source, these settlers failed to stop at a checkpoint and were armed. After this unfortunate death, the Israeli army invaded Nablus and injured three Palestinian youths. They also damaged vehicles. It is an unfortunate situation in which BOTH sides need to calm down.

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  8. gary, i suppose you found the post about the slain baby, the fogel family, also political. fyi, consult my post on jericho, dec. 12, 2010. (mt. of temptation) hopefully, you will find that straight archeology

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  9. anon 6:03, those shot were neither "settlers" or armed. they are hasidic jews, who are unconcerned with politics. the palestinian policeman claimed they tried to steal his gun, which is rather unbelievable for this group, which visits the tomb on a regular basis without prior arrangement.

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  10. "those shot were neither 'settlers' nor armed"

    Facts makes no difference to the Propagandists...

    ...this has been proven over and over again.

    Funny how the MSM is all but silent on Syria.

    But, whatever.

    ReplyDelete

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