Frequently, clerics and political leaders among the Palestinians claim that the “Jews are destroying Muslim holy sites”, in effort to arouse anger and incite riots and violence. The truth is that it’s the other way around. Arutz Sheva reports that Joseph’s tomb has been destroyed by Arab vandals:
The destruction of Joseph’s Tomb of the past two weeks is now “official.” Prime Minister Sharon and Defense Minister Mofaz confirmed this morning, at the Cabinet meeting, Arutz-7’s report of the end of last week: Arab vandals entered the holy site in Shechem sometime in the past two weeks and turned the large stone marking Joseph’s grave into a pile of rubble.
Minister Natan Sharansky called upon the Foreign Ministry to publicize the photos of the destroyed site. “If we would have razed the gravesite of one of the founders of Islam,” Sharansky said, “billions of Moslems would have taken to the streets. It’s inconceivable that the world should not know about this travesty.” Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Sharon said they would in fact publicize the photos.
To see more photos of this disgusting violation of a Jewish holy site, see this site.
Since whan do the jews have saints. Ther is no evidence that Joseph ever existed except for the tanach. Even more uncertain is where the mythological Joseph is buried.
What is more important preserving the tomb of a jewish saint who may never have existed and preserving his tomb which is probably not his tomb or saving jewish lives that would be lost saving the so callede saint’s maybe tomb.
You’re making absolutely no sense. Who says a person has to be a saint to be important in religion? Are you implying that only Christian holy sites are to be respected, because only Christians have saints?
Whether you or I or anyone believes in it individually is irrelevant. Destroying holy sites of another religion is about the most disgusting and disrespectful thing that you cna do. Are you condoning the destruction? On what grounds?
The IDF should enter Shechem and remove every arab. Shechem should then be returned to its original inhabitants – Jews.
Bwas – If Joseph never lived, then I guess everything that Jesus and Muhammed taught is a lie.
My point is segacs that first the signifigance of the site is highly questionable. But even if not questionable is it worth fighting over to preserve it if lives are going to be lost in doing so.
Secondly until 35 years ago the only site considered holy in judiaism was the temple mount and that was the place were the holy of holies had been located.
All of asudden in 35 years now sites were certain jews are supposed to be buried suddenly become holy when they were not 35 years ago.What has changed. Is this not equivalent to worshipping idols.
And my point is that none of that matters. The fact that you don’t believe a site is holy doesn’t give you the right to destroy it. The mobs who destroyed Joseph’s Tomb weren’t having a barbecue. They were purposely out to destroy what many Jewish people consider to be a holy site.
Your interpretation of its religious significance is no more or less valid than someone else’s. And you can bet that if a Jewish mob was to destroy a Muslim holy site, the world would be in a veritable uproar – no matter what you thought about the “veracity” of the claims about the spot.
But is it worth losing lives over to hold. Is all this worth the lives of the IDF soldiers. If so how many must die before too many have died.
That Joseph’s tomb isn’t holy, or that saint veneration isn’t a big thing among Jews, are odd things to hear indeed. The former will make little sense to anyone modestly acquainted with Judaism. The latter will make little sense to anyone whose knowledge of Judaism isn’t restricted to the practices of North American, secular Ashkenazi Jews.
But the bigger red herring is the idea that for Joseph’s tomb to exist or for Jews to make pilgrimages to it requires IDF soldiers. I have a hard time believing that anyone supports or calls for a Palestinian state whose citizens destroy the country’s religious heritage sites, or whose government prevents foreigners from pilgrimages to these holy sites. The two-state solution’s success depends on access to religious sites, and because it’s not too hard to manage, it shouldn’t be overly controversial.