Friday, October 16, 2015

Tomb of Joseph complex set on fire

ISIS SMILES: Palestinian Youth Set Fire to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. Hundreds gathered and threw Molotov cocktails at the compound; Palestinian security forces stepped in when some broke in and threw flammable materials inside. The IDF condemned the demonstration, as well as the attack of any holy site. (Jack Khoury, Gili Cohen, Chaim Levinson and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz).
The tomb, identified as the resting place of the Biblical Joseph, sits on the slope of Mount Gerizim in Nablus and near the Balata refugee camp.

Joseph's Tomb was not included in the grave list of holy sites which was transferred to the Palestinians as a result of the second Oslo agreement signed in 1995. When the IDF pulled out of Nablus that same year as a result of the agreement, Od Yosef Hai, a yeshiva founded in the 1980s, it's name a Biblical reference, became a Jewish and Israeli enclave in the area. But in 2000, because of the outbreak of the second intifada, Israel completely withdrew from the grave, as it was too difficult to defend. 

In recent years, every month at night, worshippers would gather at Joseph's Tomb to pray. The visits were coordinated with the military forces and Palestinian security.

There were many conflicts around the grave in recent months due to uncoordinated visits. In 2011, Ben-Yosef Livnat was killed and three of his friends were wounded by a Palestinian policeman after visiting the area without clearing it with the IDF.
This is not the first time there has been such violence at the (traditional) Tomb of Joseph. Some of this is touched on in past posts here, here, and here.