Surprise? BBC News glosses over repeated Palestinian violence at holy site - by Hadar Sela

Despite its public purpose obligation to provide audiences with “impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them” the BBC chooses to euphemistically frame regular breaches of that agreement as “friction” attributed to the site itself rather than to the Palestinians actually throwing firebombs, explosives or rocks.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
27 March '19..

Visitors to the BBC News website on March 20th found a report titled “Two Palestinians killed in clashes in Nablus” which opened as follows:

“Two Palestinian men have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military said explosive devices were hurled from a car at troops guarding Jewish worshippers at Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Nablus.

The troops opened fire, killing two assailants, it added.”

The report later went on to inform readers that: [emphasis added]

“Joseph’s Tomb – which is revered by Jews and Muslims as the burial place of the son of the biblical patriarch Jacob – has been a source of friction in the past.

It is in an area under Palestinian civilian control, but Jewish pilgrims are permitted to visit several times a year under Israeli military protection.”

Also of significance to Christians, the site is in fact:

“…located inside Area A of the West Bank, under complete Palestinian Authority control. The IDF bars Israeli citizens from entering Area A without prior authorization.”

The BBC did not bother to explain to readers of this report the meaning of the phrase “a source of friction in the past”. The last time audiences saw any BBC reporting on such so-called “friction” was in October 2015 when Palestinian rioters set fire to the tomb. Since then repeated attacks on both the site itself and security forces guarding visiting worshippers have gone unreported. For example:

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Yet another universal human right that Mr Abbas is against - by Elder of Ziyon

...Anyone who thinks that there can be peace with the Palestinians needs to explain exactly how these tolerant, peaceful people would treat the Jews who want to pray at Jewish holy sites. And feel free to bring examples from the tolerance of the Muslims when they controlled those sites under Ottoman and Jordanian rule, as well as how the PA treats Joseph's Tomb today.

Elder of Ziyon..
07 August '17..

Every month or so, religious Jews flock to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus to pray. They do this in the middle of the night, under heavy Israeli police protection, because otherwise they would be lynched.

Under existing agreements, the PA is supposed to allow access to holy sites under its control. The Interim Agreement says, 'Both sides shall respect and protect the religious rights of Jews, Christians, Muslims and Samaritans concerning the protection and free access to the holy sites as well as freedom of worship and practice.'

Here is how the PA's official Wafa news agency describes the latest pilgrimage by religious Jews, who are willing to stay for hours in a virtual prison where walking outside could get them killed, in order to get a chance to pray at Joseph's Tomb:

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Actually the issue isn’t where Jews may pray. It’s whether Jews have any rights at all

...Keeping the peace in Jerusalem and Nablus is a serious problem and Israeli authorities are working to do just that even if it means adhering to rules that discriminate against Jews like the prayer ban Israel enforces on the Temple Mount. But as the UNESCO vote and the Nablus riots remind us, the issue isn’t where Jews may pray. It’s whether Jews have any rights at all. And that is a fight from which all decent persons who claim to oppose anti-Semitism should not shrink from.

Palestinians try to demolish part
of Joseph's Tomb in October 2000.
AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
28 April '16..

In the West Bank city of Nablus, Arabs rioted on Thursday. Were they complaining about Jewish settlements or the lack of a Palestinian state? No. Their issue was the fact that a group of Jews had entered the city, and as is their right under agreements concluded with the Palestinian Authority, sought to pray at the Tomb of Joseph, an ancient Jewish site of worship. Palestinians threw rocks and burned tires. But Israeli troops defended the pilgrims and, thanks to the army’s efforts to prevent injuries on either side, no Palestinians were reported hurt. This wasn’t the first time Palestinians sought to prevent Jews from praying at the tomb. There was a similar incident in February. Prior to that, the tomb and the synagogue that encompasses it were burned last October as well as in 2000 in a bloody riot at the start of the second intifada.

Why can’t the Palestinians accept the site of Jews praying at an ancient site? It has nothing to do with arguments about borders, settlements or statehood. It’s the same reason they treat Jewish prayer on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount — the holiest site in Judaism — to be a declaration of war on Islam. It’s a function of a narrative in which the presence of Jews in any part of the country is seen as offensive and a challenge to national pride. It’s also the reason why the Palestinians and their allies managed to get UNESCO to pass a resolution that denied any connection between the Temple Mount and the Western Wall and Judaism or the Jewish people.

As Yossi Klein Halevi noted in an insightful article published last week in the Los Angeles Times, the whole point of this campaign is to deny Jews not only a state but also the right to their own history and faith. If Passover, which concludes this weekend, is the annual festival of freedom, in which the story of the Exodus from Egypt commemorates the birth of the Jewish people, the purpose of the anti-Zionists and anti-Semites that deny Jews rights in Jerusalem, Nablus or anywhere in the holy land, is to erase the entire Jewish story. They do it because only by denying the narrative of Jewish history that validates the rights of Jews to sovereignty in their ancient homeland can you achieve their goal of delegitimizing the modern state of Israel. If you accomplish that goal, you can not only convince a credulous world that a democratic Jewish majority nation is an “apartheid state,” but also deny Jews self-defense and allow hate-driven terrorists to be glorified as heroes and martyrs fighting for human rights.

Everything you need to know about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today

...One successful raid by the Israelis. Four terrorists behind bars. And many important lessons for the rest of us. Is anyone paying attention?

Stephen M. Flatow..
The Algemeiner..
28 August '15..

JNS.org You won’t read about it in the New York Times or the Washington Post. But this week’s arrest of four Palestinian terrorists who were plotting to attack a Jewish holy site tells you everything you need to know about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today.

The reason you won’t hear about it in the American news media is because the terrorists were caught before they struck. Apparently intentions don’t count. No casualties, no news coverage—and even when there are casualties, there isn’t always news coverage. Did your daily newspaper report about the 2-year-old Israeli child who was recently hit by Arab rocks?

The four arrested terrorists—who planned to attack Jews at Joseph’s Tomb—are residents of Tulkarm, Nablus (Shechem in Hebrew), and Qabatiya. Those three cities are all governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA). Yet it was the Israeli security forces, not the PA police, who captured them. That’s because the PA doesn’t arrest terrorists; it shelters them.

Of course, the 1993 Oslo Accords require the PA to apprehend and imprison terrorists. Of course, the PA is obligated to disarm and outlaw terrorist groups. Of course, the accords state that the PA must extradite terrorists to Israel. But the PA does none of those things, and the international community is silent.

The entire “peace process” is based on the notion that if Israel surrenders land to the PA, the PA can be trusted to prevent terrorism from that area. The entire argument in favor of a Palestinian state is that such a state would be peaceful and that its rulers would combat terrorism. Twenty years of PA self-rule has proven otherwise.

The plan of the four arrested terrorists was to set off explosives at Joseph’s Tomb and machine-gun the Jewish worshippers there. Anybody who thinks that Palestinian terrorism is directed merely at “the occupation,” and not at Jews, think again. Joseph’s Tomb is not in some Jewish settlement in “occupied territory.” It is one small building in a huge Palestinian Arab city. It is an isolated Jewish religious site to which Jewish worshippers come to study and pray; no “settlers” reside there.

In other words, the purpose of an attack on Joseph’s Tomb is to murder Jews at prayer and destroy a Jewish holy site. Nobody can pretend that such an attack would be related to settlements or refugees or borders or any other political and diplomatic controversies. Thus, the choice of the target reveals volumes about the Palestinians’ true sentiment.

Were the terrorists outcasts, rogues, or isolated extremists? Hardly. One, Muhamad Damiri, is a Palestinian policeman. Another, Nisim Damiri, is a veteran member of the Tanzim. That’s the armed wing of Fatah, which is chaired by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Yes, the “moderate” Fatah, which the Obama administration refuses to label as a terrorist group.

Preservation vs. Palestinian-Arab Vandalism

So one might well ask: If the Palestinian Authority really is so devoted to in-situ preservation of antiquities in the Holy Land, why does it countenance attacks on Jewish heritage sites like Rachel's Tomb and Joseph's Tomb? Don't these despicable attacks violate the Oslo Accords and international law?

Leo Rennert..
American Thinker..
14 February '13..





The Israel Museum in Jerusalem is staging its most ambitious exhibition -- a massive archeological reconstitution of King Herod's palaces and burial site, including his elaborate sarcophagus.

Both the New York Times and the Washington Post devote lengthy articles to the exhibit, including prominent mention of Palestinian protests that Israel is appropriating artifacts from the West Bank that belong to a future Palestinian state.

The Times' headline reads: ''Anger That a Herod Show Uses West Bank Objects" (by Jodi Rudoren, Feb. 14, page A9)

The Post headlines its version: "In Israel's Herod exhibit, Palestinian see cultural theft" (by Joel Greenberg, Feb. 14, page A7).

Both articles provide a forum for bogus Palestinian charges that the Israel Museum is violating international law because the exhibit somehow assumes that the West Bank will always be part of Israel, leaving no room for a Palestinian state.

This is utter nonsense. Under the Oslo Accords, signed by Israel and the Palestinians, Israel is given responsibility for antiquities in the West Bank pending a final peace deal. The accords call for both sides to protect archeological sites and also allow for excavation.

The key: Jewish unity and Joseph's Tomb

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
26 July '12..

Last week, in the most unlikely of places, I came face to face with the power of Jewish unity. It was well after midnight when the convoy of heavily-guarded Israeli cars and buses began the short drive through the deserted streets of Shechem (Nablus).

Posted along the way were young men in IDF uniforms, keeping a watchful eye on the hundreds of Jews who were braving the late hour and our hostile neighbors to visit an ancient Jewish holy site in the heart of Palestinian-controlled territory.

For years, I had wanted to visit Joseph's Tomb, the burial place of one of our greatest Biblical forbears and one of Israel's premier sites of religious, historical and archaeological significance. Indeed, the late Dr. Zvi Ilan, one of Israel's foremost archeologists, described Joseph's Tomb as "one of the tombs whose location is known with the utmost degree of certainty and is based on continuous documentation since Biblical times" (Tombs of the Righteous in the Land of Israel, p. 365).

According to the Book of Joshua (24:32), "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." Ancient rabbinic texts such as the Midrash mention the site, as did the early Church historian Eusebius of Caesarea, who visited it nearly 1,700 years ago. Arab geographers, medieval Jewish pilgrims, Samaritan historians and even 19th-century British cartographers all concur regarding Joseph's Tomb and its location.

But ever since Israel ignominiously abandoned the site under a hail of Palestinian gunfire on October 7, 2000, visiting it has become a logistical challenge.

Currently, Israelis are allowed access to the tomb only once a month in the wee hours of the night and under tight IDF supervision.

BASIC PRINCIPLES such as freedom of worship and assembly are tossed aside, with the result being that a total of only about 1,200 Jews are able to visit the tomb in the one night per month that is made available.

That may sound like a lot, but the demand is far greater. During my visit, I noticed how the cellphones of the organizers did not stop ringing, as they were forced to contend with people who were pleading to be granted a space on one of the buses so they could visit the Tomb. Nearly all had to be turned away.

Relinquishing Joseph’s Tomb was supposed to be temporary

Michael Freund
Fundamentally Freund/JPost
28 April '11

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=218127


The Palestinian conduct vis-à-vis the tomb is a clear violation of signed commitments.

Earlier this week, an incident occurred that should have provoked outrage across the civilized world. In an act of wanton slaughter, Palestinian policemen opened fire at a convoy of Jewish worshipers near Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus on Sunday.

The men had just recited morning prayers at the Jewish holy site in honor of Pessah, and were heading home to prepare for the end of the festival. But they never made it.

At a checkpoint near the tomb, our ostensible peace partners killed Ben-Yosef Livnat, 25, and wounded four other Israelis, one of them critically. Livnat, a nephew of Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat, left a wife and four young children.

Even as the Israeli vehicles sought to escape, the Palestinian policemen reportedly continued to fire on them.

Although the IDF initially refrained from labeling the episode an “attack,” it’s clear that that is precisely what it was.

And by Sunday evening, both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were calling the shooting an act of “murder.”

Palestinian officials were quick to point out that the Israeli worshipers had failed to coordinate their visit in advance – as though that somehow justified shooting at them.

But as Barak rightly noted: “No problem of coordination can justify an incident like this and the shooting of innocent people.”

Even though the identity of the perpetrators is known, none have been detained as of this writing. And given the Palestinian Authority’s track record in punishing those who attack Israelis, there is no reason to suspect that the policemen in question will be made to pay for their crime.

Needless to say, barely a peep was heard from the international community over this brazen assault on the fundamental right of Jews to worship freely. Just imagine what the reaction would have been had Palestinian worshipers leaving a mosque been attacked by Israeli policemen.. We all know how that would have gone down.

Rubin: Palestinian police murder Jew who ‘sneaks in’ to worship

Jennifer Rubin
Right Turn
Washington Post
26 April '11


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/palestinian-police-murder-jew-who-sneaks-in-to-worship/2011/03/29/AFVuyRlE_blog.html#pagebreak

Over the weekend one Israeli Jew was killed and four others were injured. The Post reported on Sunday:

Palestinian police opened fire on a group of Israelis who sneaked in to pray at a Jewish holy site in the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday, killing one and wounding four others, officials on both sides said. Palestinian officials said that the worshipers, who were in three cars, had ignored warning shots after arriving in the early-morning hours for an unauthorized visit. The officials said that the policemen involved were held for questioning. The incident was under joint investigation by Israeli and Palestinian officials. The shooting occurred near Joseph’s Tomb, a site inside Palestinian-controlled Nablus where Jewish settlers and strictly Orthodox Jews arrive periodically to pray under Israeli army escort, in coordination with the Palestinian police. . . Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued a statement calling the killing “a murder.”

A chilling report from Ynet news service provided some detail:

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’. 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.”

Many non-Israelis were surprised to learn that “groups of Breslov Hassids and settlers regularly sneak in to Joseph’s Tomb to pray in addition to those who arrive on the visits coordinated by the Israeli army, according to organizers of the authorized pilgrimages.”

The killing in turn set off riots. By the Palestinians. The Jerusalem Post reported: “Dozens of Palestinians rioted near Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus on Sunday following an incident in which a PA police officer opened fire on Israeli worshipers, killing one and injuring four others. The rioters set tires on fire at the religious site, Israel Radio reported. Settlers claimed that Palestinians vandalized Joseph’s tomb in the wake of the attack.”

Despite the high-profile incident and subsequent violence the Obama administration was mute. No statement from the State Department. Nothing from the White House. No doubt the administration would prefer to ignore the incident as it vainly struggles to revive the moribund peace process and dangles before the Palestinians the prospect of a divided or internationalized Jerusalem, where, of course, holy sites would be protected and full access guaranteed.

I spoke yesterday with Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and an adviser to multiple Israeli governments. He told me, “What makes the attack all the more glaring on the issue of Jerusalem is the comparison of all the reports about religious freedom in the Old City on Good Friday and Easter. Jerusalem works — only those who want to divide the city will undermine the freedom that Jerusalem now enjoys.” Indeed, under Israeli control, freedom of worship is protected. When the Arabs controlled the city, it was a different story:

After the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem was captured, the destruction, desecration and systematic looting of Jewish sites began and continued. 57 ancient synagogues (the oldest dated to the 13th century), libraries and centers of religious study were ransacked and 12 were totally and deliberately destroyed. Those that remained standing were defaced, used for housing of both people and animals. The city’s foremost Jewish shrine, the Western Wall, became a slum. Appeals were made to the United Nations and in the international community to declare the Old City to be an ‘open city’ and stop this destruction, but there was no response. This condition continued until Jordan lost control of Jerusalem in June 1967.


On the Mount of Olives, the Jordanian Arabs removed 38,000 tombstones from the ancient cemetery and used them as paving stones for roads and as construction material in Jordanian Army camps, including use as latrines. When the area was recaptured by Israel in 1967, graves were found open with the bones scattered. Parts of the cemetery were converted into parking lots, a filling station, and an asphalt road was built to cut through it. The Intercontinental Hotel was built at the top of the cemetery. Sadar Khalil, appointed by the Jordanian government as the official caretaker of the cemetery, built his home on the grounds using the stones robbed from graves. In 1967, the press published extensive photos documenting that Jewish gravestones were found in Jordanian Army camps, such as El Azariya, as well as in Palestinian walkways, steps, bathrooms, and pavement.

Gold also dismissed the notion that the victims were to blame for the shootings. “In the case of Joseph’s Tomb, perhaps the Breslaver Hassidim did not coordinate their visit, but that might be a basis for detaining them for a few minutes to ask some questions and letting them continue — but that is no basis for killing them,” he said. Moreover, he reminded me that the Palestinians’ behavior is contrary to international agreements. He observed that “the Palestinians undertook to protect ‘free, unimpeded and secure access’ to Jewish holy sites in the West Bank, including Joseph’s Tomb. The international community expects us or anyone else to rely on them for protecting Jerusalem? This is before they re-engage with Hamas!”

Indeed, experience and facts keep getting in the way of the Obama administration’s Middle East peace process. Murder, incitement to violence and the Palestinians’ continued violation of their own existing obligations suggest we are not on the cusp of a new era of Middle East peace. Could it be that building mother-in-law apartments in East Jerusalem isn’t the root of the problem?

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Enough blame to go around

Treppenwitz
treppenwitz.com
24 April '11
Posted before Chag



http://www.treppenwitz.com/2011/04/enough-blame-to-go-around.html

Early this morning several vehicles containing Jewish worshipers made a clandestine visit to Joseph's tomb in Shechem (Nablus). This kind of unauthorized visit to the Jewish holy site is not an uncommon occurrence, especially on the part of Brealev Hassidim, since according to the current security arrangements, only one nighttime visit per month is allowed... and then only to a small number of people.

According to published sources, there is currently a list of thousands of Jews waiting for permission to visit the site.

Because of this backlog, many Jews have become accustomed to visiting the tomb and adjoining synagogue under cover of darkness in the early morning hours; finishing their prayers as the sun comes up. This has been done largely with a wink and a nod from both the Israeli and palestinian security forces.

Until today, that is.

At about 6:00 AM this morning, several vehicles containing a group of Breslev Hassidim came under a hail of automatic machine gun fire, allegedly from Palestinian security forces. One worshiper was killed and several were wounded before they managed to make their way to an Israeli check point.

To my way of seeing things, this ludicrous, not to mention dangerous, situation has been deliberately allowed to develop by our leftist, anti-religious defense minister in much the same way that he has fostered the fallacy that the very presence of Jews within stones throw (and firing range) of Arabs is deemed sufficiently provocative to spark calls to remove the Jews rather than the stone throwers and shooters.

There is absolutely no reason why we should be meticulously maintaining access to Muslim holy sites (such as the Temple Mount) for Arabs, while Jews are routinely denied access to those same, and other, sites.

We'll leave aside my personal conviction that Islam is a modern, made up religion that flies in the face of all historical evidence, not to mention is incapable of coexisting with other faiths.

What really bothers me (aside from the wanton slaughter of innocent Jews), is the ongoing trend of discounting millennium old Jewish claims to holy sites in our own land, while holding as sacrosanct any and all Muslim claims and sensibilities, however modern and inconsistent with historical and religious texts.

The PA is calling this morning's murder shooting a "security event, not an act of terror". I beg to differ.

As I said earlier, both the Israeli and Palestinian security services are quite familiar with these unsanctioned early morning prayer visits, and have treated them as harmless for years. That the Palestinian police felt comfortable opening fire on these vehicles today indicates that they have received new orders.

I am so sick of Jews being arrested and assaulted for daring to move their lips in silent prayer on the temple mount. I am sick of our holy places having to be fortified like bunkers in order to ensure the safety of arriving worshippers (Rachel's tomb), and of Jewish life and property being deemed equally unworthy of protection by our own defense minister.

Jews praying at Jewish holy sites is not a provocation. It is not a security threat. It is not an obstacle to peace. Only the mindset of those who feel otherwise creates a climate where peaceful coexistence can never be achieved. And I include both Israelis and Palestinians in that accusation.

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When does enough become enough?

Arabs vandalize Joseph's tomb
and adjacent yeshiva in 2000

Fresnozionism.org
24 April '11

http://fresnozionism.org/2011/04/when-does-enough-become-enough/

Joseph’s tomb is located in an area that was placed under Palestinian control by the Oslo accords. However, access to Jewish holy places was supposedly guaranteed, and Israeli soldiers were stationed there to protect Jewish worshipers. In 1996, it was attacked by Palestinian Arab ‘police’ and terrorists (are they different?) and six IDF soldiers were killed. The Arabs were ‘furious’ (aren’t they always?) ‘because’ Israel had opened an additional entrance to a tunnel that ran under the Western Wall, and about 80 people were killed in ensuing riots.

The second Intifada in 2000 (‘because’ Ariel Sharon had visited the Temple Mount) brought another attack, in which an Israeli border patrolman was killed. After that the IDF sporadically arranged visits for Jews wanting to pray there, although the building was vandalized and had garbage dumped at the site.

The Muqata blog brings the story up to date:

Sometimes the IDF coordinates visits in the middle of the night and brings in busloads of people (unless they think it is too dangerous), but more often Breslev Hassidim sneak in and out in the middle of the night.


Early this morning [April 24, 2011] (5:40AM), after finishing their prayers a carload of Breslev Hassidim were attacked by Palestinian policemen.


Originally 3 carloads of Jews arrived at the tomb to pray, but PA policemen waiting there shot in the air and 2 of the cars immediately left. The third carload of Breslevers stayed to pray.


After the prayers, when the Hassidim were driving out, the Palestinian policemen (trained and funded by the US) drove their PA police jeep up to the car with the Hassidim in it and opened fire.


One Israeli, Ben-Yosef Livnat (age 24) was killed and 3 more injured. Livnat is the nephew of Minister Limor Livnat.

Do you see? Let them think that they are safe, and then shoot them down in cold blood. After all, they are not only Jews, they’re ‘religious’, with their black hats. Only killing a ‘settler’ gets an Arab gunman more honor.

When does enough become enough? How many murders have to be committed by Palestinian Arabs just because the victim was a Jew and it was convenient to kill him, before there is a fundamental change in our way of thinking about Palestinian Arabs?

When do we stop treating Arab rights as top priority and start worrying about our survival? This applies to the ordinary terrorist in the street and to the Palestinian ‘security services’ that the US administration thinks it has trained to be ‘professional’, but it also applies to the Palestinian Authority that most of the world thinks should have a state.

Peace is not a possible outcome. The alternatives are effective self-defense or suicide.

Update [0019 PDT]: Israel National News reports:

Speaking to reporters Sunday morning, one of the Bresolv Hassidim [sic] who was in the vehicle shot at by PA police earlier outside the Tomb of Joseph said that it was clear that the PA police were shooting to kill. “They fired several long rounds at our cars, and yelled ‘Allahu Akhbar.’ There is no doubt they were shooting to kill us,” the witness said.

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Driving While Jewish

West Bank Mama
24 April '11

http://westbankmama.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/driving-while-jewish/

A group of Breslav chassidim tried to drive to Joseph’s Tomb in the early hours of the night and were shot at, some say by the “Palestinian police” (pardon my cynicism, but in my opinion they are just Arab terrorists in a uniform versus the ones without).

One was killed, and two others injured seriously. Why were they shot? Because they were Jewish and in the “wrong” place.

For those of you not familiar with the Jewish holy places, Joseph’s Tomb is located on the edge of Schem (sometimes called Nablus). Which means that it is one of the places where it is dangerous to show your face – if you are Jewish.

Arabs can walk around freely in Jewish cities without fear. Yes, the Arabs living in pre-1967 borders must go through a checkpoint before entering, and then only with a permit, because we are afraid of terrorists. But if they do appear in any city in Israel they are not shot on sight just because they are Arabs.

You cannot say the same for Jews. If we go to the “wrong” place we are in danger of our very lives. The most notorious example of this was the lynch in Ramallah, where two Israeli soldiers mistakenly drove into Ramallah, were surrounded by a bloodthirsty mob and were literally torn limb from limb. (I wish I was exaggerating…).

I was hoping to get through the whole holiday of Passover without a post like this.

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Photographic Proof: Settlers Storm The Tomb Of Joseph!

Daled Amos
19 October '10

The caption under the picture in Palestine Today could not be clearer: Settlers storm the place of 'Joseph' in Nablus

But pictures speak louder than words.

See for yourself:

Elder of Ziyon has more on "Settlers storm Tomb of Joseph":

Once again, a group of Jews went late at night to pray at the Tomb of Joseph near Shechem (Nablus,) and the Arabic media freaks.

This time it is Palestine Today saying they are "settlers" who "stormed the shrine" and "raided" the area, which is supposed to be accessible to Jews under existing agreements.

The Palestinian press has been known to take yellow journalism to whole new levels--but unlike William Randolph Hearst, this about more than just selling more papers; it is about inciting hatred and encouraging world condemnation.

And it works--because the MSM takes this stuff at face value.

(Read full post)

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1,000 pray at renovated Joseph's Tomb

Yair Altman
Israel News/Ynet
29 September '10
Posted before Chag

Ten years have passed since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada. One notorious incident at the beginning of the uprising – the exchange of fire at Joseph's Tomb, during which Border Guard Madhat Yusuf was killed and the site evacuated and torched by angry Palestinians – marked the end of a permanent Israeli presence there.

However, on Monday night about 1,000 people came to the tomb to pray for the first time since the site and the tomb it contains were renovated.

The Civil Administration coordinated security with Palestinian security forces for the visitors who came to mark the Ushpizin prayer at the tomb in the center of the Palestinian city of Nablus.

Kever Yosef: Rising from the ashes. For more details on how to have the 
full presentation shown in your community contact David Ha'ivri haivri@gmail.com

Haivri

"The process was led by the army and the Samaria Regional Council after a personal request from the head of the Civil Administration to the Palestinian Authority," a source at the site said. "It was closely coordinated, according to an agreement between the sides to safeguard religious sites."

(Read full story)

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Burned Mosque Is a Mystery, Nearby Burned Synagogue Wasn’t

Jonathan Tobin
Contentions/Commentary
05 May '10

The New York Times reported today about a fire in a mosque in the Palestinian village of Luban al Sharqiya, but the point of the article wasn’t the tragedy of the conflagration but the theoretical possibility that a Jew was the arsonist.

The problem is, while there have been a few isolated incidents of Jewish extremists attacking Palestinian villages (and numerous, far-from-isolated instances of Palestinians attacking Jews in and around settlements), as the Times reports, there is absolutely no evidence that the mosque fire was started by a Jewish extremist and not even proof that arson started the fire. But that doesn’t stop Palestinians from making such accusations and using them as an excuse to avoid peace with Israel. Nor does anything prevent the Times from reporting unfounded accusations as though they were reasonable opinions.

But in reading about the mystery of the fire in the mosque in this village south of Nablus, one couldn’t help but remember the burning of another house of worship not far away. Less than 10 years ago, in the fall of 2000, a Palestinian mob, aided and abetted by Palestinian Authority “policemen,” attacked the Tomb of Joseph, a Jewish shrine and synagogue inside Nablus. The mob sacked the Jewish institution, desecrated sacred Jewish objects, and then burned it to the ground.

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What if a Synagogue Were Burned and Other Silly Questions

Arab mob burning Tomb of Joseph, October 2000

Jonathan Tobin
Contentions/Commentary
14 December 09

The New York Times reports that the “West Bank Is Tense After Arson at Mosque,” which is believed to be the work of Jewish extremists. Palestinian Arabs are rightly upset at this crime. So are Israelis. And therein hangs the tale of Middle East peace.

The fire at the mosque in the village of Yasuf appears to have been set last week by some Jewish settlers demonstrating their anger toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to temporarily freeze building in Jewish communities in the West Bank. Extremists have vowed to counter such moves by increasing tensions with the Arabs. This is clearly madness and is rejected not only by the overwhelming majority of the people of Israel but also by the overwhelming majority of the approximately 300,000 Jews who live in the settlements. Local Jewish religious leaders attempted to visit Yasuf to express their condolences, but they were prevented from going there. So instead they met with Munir Abbushi, the Palestinian Authority’s regional governor, and presented him with new Korans. Abbushi accepted the Korans but then stated that Palestinian independence would mean that all Jews would have to be removed from the region. The Palestinians reject the right of Jews to live in their midst under any circumstances and regardless of who has or has not committed crimes.

But if you really wanted to get a feel for how differently the two communities think about these things, ask yourself what would happen if, instead of a mosque, a synagogue had been burned down. But this is not a hypothetical question.

Arab mobs burning synagogue, Gush Katif 2005

In October 2000, at the start of the Palestinians’ second intifada, the Tomb of Joseph, a Jewish holy site in Nablus that served as a synagogue and religious school, was literally torn to pieces by an Arab mob. As Palestinian Authority “police” looked on, the mob destroyed the building and burned the sacred texts inside. But instead of treating the crime as an embarrassment to the national cause, among Palestinians it was treated as a cause for celebration. Another ancient synagogue in Jericho was also burned down that month. And even before the intifada, the Tomb of Rachel, a Jewish shrine near Bethlehem, was subjected to continual attacks. It had to be surrounded by fortifications to keep both the building and worshipers from harm.

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