Sunday, April 23, 2023
Elder of Ziyon
It is unclear why it took five months to write this report. Perhaps to make the religious pilgrims look as racist as possible while the residents of Nablus are hapless victims.
The headline is, "A Nighttime Trip to Joseph’s Tomb, Where Jewish Prayer Means a Military Raid" with the subhead, "Bus passengers coming from Jerusalem were greeted with empty streets in Nablus – but that’s how it always is when Jewish worshippers visit Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank city, where the Israeli army forces Palestinians to put their lives on hold "
The military operation that was necessary to provide security for this “field trip” (or “entrance” as they are called) was impossible to see through the bus’ windows. The passengers couldn’t see the hundreds of Israeli soldiers deployed around Nablus, the entire streets that were placed under curfew and the Palestinians living there. But they may have gotten a whiff of the residents’ protest – mainly from the smell of burning tires.Seven Palestinians were killed last year during such “entrances,” though this hadn’t disturbed the sleep of the passengers. From their viewpoint, the sterile road they were on, as if traveling through a ghost town, was simply routine.
Hate for the Jewish worshipers permeates the piece:
“Welcome to the Lion’s Den, pun intended,” Rivka jokes, referring to the local militia group that has regularly clashed with Israeli security forces in the city. There was applause and singing: “Thanks to Joseph the righteous, Ephraim and Menashe.” A few passengers quietly added: “May [the Arabs’] village burn.”
Yes, there are Jewish extremists who curse Arabs. But one almost has to read between the lines to understand that the Nablus militants aren't just cursing the Jews - they are trying to murder them.
The reporter does indeed bury this mention:
The Oslo Accords recognized Joseph’s Tomb as a holy site for Jews and stated that its protection and that of its visitors would rest with the Palestinian police – but that Israeli security would also be allowed within it.
Yet this is the most important fact. Under existing agreements, Jews should have free access to Joseph's Tomb. The Palestinians want to kill them instead, and in the past, they have. those very Palestinian policemen who are supposed to protect Jewish visitors killed Ben-Yosef Livna in 2011, and there are regular gunshots aimed at the Jewish worshipers.
While the words of the Jewish pilgrims are parsed to find evidence of their racism, Palestinians who are interviewed are not subject to any skepticism whatsoever:
The tomb is located in an eastern neighborhood of Nablus, near the Balata refugee camp. A school is located on the street leading to the tomb, and there are shops in the vicinity. However, when worshippers visit the tomb, the shops close early – some two hours before the visitors arrive.“By 8 P.M., we start taking in our merchandise and get ready to close. The young people begin burning tires and erect barriers such as stone and iron,” one 24-year-old neighborhood resident told Salma a-Deb’i, a researcher for the Israeli anti-occupation human rights organization B’Tselem.
The article notes that the buses normally arrive at 11 PM - specifically to minimize any disruption to the lives of the residents. How many shops are open at 11 PM?
As this snippet shows, the problem is not the visitors - it is the Palestinian terrorists who are determined to stop Jews from peacefully visiting. The IDF must protect the visitors from the terrorists. But to Haaretz, Palestinian terror is a given, and the "militant youth" cannot be held responsible for disrupting the lives of the residents of Nablus by erecting makeshift roadblocks and shooting towards the buses.
There are two choices: Protect a Jewish holy spot, or surrender to the demands of Palestinian terrorists who demand that the site be Jew-free.
Haaretz says that Palestinian demands trump Jewish ties to our sacred spaces. To Haaretz, the most violent Palestinian armed thug should have veto power over anything Jews do, Oslo or no Oslo.
So by that logic, Jews should never visit the Temple Mount, or Tomb of the Patriarchs, or indeed any Jewish holy place that was also claimed by Muslims many centuries later - which is all of them.
It may be a strange concept, but the people responsible for violence are the people who engage in violence, not those who defend the would-be victims.
If the Palestinians weren't by and large antisemitic, there would be no issue of Jews visiting Joseph's Tomb.
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