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| Joseph's Tomb in the early 1900s |
On Friday evening, security forces prevented angry youths from burning Joseph's Tomb in the city of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank.Local sources reported that an angry march started at night in front of Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, with the participation of dozens of young men, and headed towards Joseph's tomb in the Balata Al-Balad area, in an attempt to burn it in response to the escalating attacks by settlers.The sources stated that reinforcements from the security services arrived at the site of Joseph's tomb and spread around it, preventing the march from approaching it, and confrontations erupted between them and the march participants.
According to Khaled Abu Toameh, there were two such attempts in recent days.
For the second time in the past few days, Palestinians attempted to set fire to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. Palestinian Authority security forces fired tear gas to disperse the attackers.
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) December 26, 2021
Trying to burn down a Jewish holy site? Nah, nothing antisemitic about that!
Al Jazeera quotes Palestinian Authority official Ghassan Dahglas, who is literally paid to lie about Jews in the territories and gets believed by major media. He claims that Jews only created Joseph's Tomb in recent years!
Ghassan Dahglas, who is in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, confirms that the place is "a shrine, not a tomb, and not for the Prophet of God Joseph, peace be upon him, as the occupation claims."Dahglas denies that there is a tomb in the first place, and says that the Israelis came in 2011 with large stones carried by trucks, and put them down in the place, and later claimed that it was the grave, and he tells Al Jazeera Net, "This is Palestinian-documented," and adds that "all of this is taught by their children to preserve it for future generations and adopt the forged story."
Calling Jews liars and thieves for trying to claim a Muslim site as their own? Nah, nothing antisemitic about that!
While there is certainly doubt whether this is the actual location of Joseph's Tomb, it has been identified as such since the 5th century at least. Here is an 1864 account of the site by John Mills:
There is nothing remarkable in the present structure. It is surrounded by a common -built stone wall, six feet high and thirty -eight inches thick , plastered on the inside with mortar. The space within the wall measures nine feet and five inches, from north to south ; and nine feet and thirteen inches from east to west. The corners nearly answer to the cardinal points. The doorway is in the northern side ; and opposite to it in the southern wall is a place for prayer, looking towards Mount Gerizim , and marked by a niche in the wall, over which are two slabs of stone, with defaced Hebrew writing upon them : similar niches are in the south -west and north- west corners, The tomb itself is built diagonally across the floor, and not parallel to the walls, as is usual, with the head towards the door, and the feet towards the south - west. It is built of common stone, plastered over with mortar. It measures seven feet two inches long, three feet six inches high , and three feet ten inches wide at the floor, but narrowing as it rises, and at the top terminating in a ridge. There are, also, two pillars built of stone and plastered over, in the same style as the tomb itself — one standing at the head and the other at the foot - having cavities on their tops, to hold the incense burnt by the worshippers who visit the place. The larger of the two measures nearly four feet in height, and three feet in circumference. The walls on the southern side of the tomb are scribbled over with names of Samaritans, Jews, and Mohammedans, written in their different languages.
