Palestinian Rioters Vandalize Joseph’s Tomb As Tensions Escalate In Region

Palestinian rioters vandalized a sacred Jewish site in the West Bank amid clashes over a string of deadly Arab and Palestinian attacks in Israel, officials said Sunday.

About 100 Palestinians marched toward Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Nablus late Saturday and torched it before they were dispersed, Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Ran Kochav told Israeli Army Radio.

Photos showed parts of the tomb smashed and charred, as well as damage to a chandelier hanging above it, a water tank and an electricity closet, the Jerusalem Post reported.

“We will not accept this kind of an attack on a place that is holy to us, particularly on the eve of Passover,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said. “We will reach the rioters. Of course, we will make sure to rebuild what they destroyed, as we always do.”

It is not the first time Joseph’s Tomb was attacked. In October 2000, Rabbi Hillel Lieberman set out on foot to protect the sacred site, the Torah scrolls, and other religious books inside, after hearing it was being attacked, desecrated and burned. The next day, his bullet-riddled body was found outside Nablus, the biblical Shechem.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid also condemned the destruction of the holy site.

“Attacking holy sites is attacking the heart of a people,” Lapid tweeted. “We will bring the perpetrators to justice and repair Joseph’s Tomb.”

Defense Minister Benny Gantz called the damage “extremely serious” and said he “sent a ‘sharp message’ to the Palestinian Authority about it.”

It’s a tremendous paradox that in the Middle East, only Israel protects the holy sites of all religions: Jewish, Christian, Bahia, Druze and Muslim. It’s been that way since 1967 when Israel regained control of Judea and Samaria and all of Jerusalem.

Joseph’s Tomb is not an insignificant, out-of-the-way place. Biblically you’ll recall that, before dying, Joseph made his children promise he’d be buried in the land of Israel from which he had been physically separated, but which was always the center of his life.

The desecration of Joseph’s Tomb (again) this week is one of many examples. It’s not just in Israel and Jewish sites. One doesn’t have to think too far back to recall the desecration (along with murders) by ISIS on countless sites through Iraq and Syria.

However, the desecration is especially egregious when it’s combined with anti-Israel Palestinian nationalism that seeks to erase Jewish and Christian religious history from the Land, and the targets are not “just” houses of worship but actual biblical sites.

The physical desecration is a byproduct of the theology that says Jews don’t have a history in Israel. This is particularly ridiculous and offensive with the allegation that there was never a temple on the Temple Mount.