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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1406737/posts

Jewish Response to Desecration: Grief, Not Violence
CNSNews.com ^ | 5/19/05 | Julie Stahl

Posted on 05/19/2005 5:45:54 PM PDT by abu afak

Jerusalem- Although Palestinians have desecrated Jewish holy books and Jewish holy sites for years, it is not the Jewish way to respond with violence, said Jewish leaders here.

A brief item in the May 9 edition of Newsweek magazine said U.S. troops had flushed a Koran down a toilet in an effort to rattle Muslim detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The report- since retracted- sparked deadly riots in Muslim countries, including Afghanistan. But Jewish leaders said such a thing would not happen here -- although there are plenty of provocations.

In October 2000, near the beginning of the Palestinian armed conflict, the Tomb of the Biblical patriarch Joseph in the West Bank city of Nablus came under fierce attack. One soldier died of wounds he suffered there.

Joseph's Tomb was one of several Jewish holy sites in Palestinian areas protected in the Oslo Accords, which Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed in 1994. Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem and the Shalom al Yisrael (Peace on Israel) Synagogue in Jericho also were included in that agreement.

The Israeli army agreed to withdraw from Joseph's Tomb, after the P.A. pledged to protect and defend it -- and with the understanding that Jews would return. But within hours, an angry Palestinian mob burned, looted and ransacked the place.

Rabbi Daniel Shilo, spokesman of the Council of Rabbis of Judea, Samaria [West Bank] and Gaza, said since then, the Palestinians have burned Joseph's Tomb a few more times.

The Jewish reaction, Shilo said, was one of grief. "We know the Arabs burn and destroy like it's a regular thing," he said.

In the 19 years (1948-1967) when the Mount of Olives in eastern Jerusalem was under Jordanian rule, Palestinians used tombstones from the ancient Jewish cemetery there for building and paving, Shilo said..."

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