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The Paris, France-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is making “an attempt to distort history” in favor of Palestinians by voting to declare Judaism’s holiest site, the Western Wall, a Muslim holy site. The JTA notes that the proposal seeks to confirm an earlier UNESCO decision that the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb–which are two West Bank sites holy to both Jews and Muslims–are part of a Palestinian state. On Friday, a Palestinian mob set fire to the Joseph’s Tomb, a Jewish holy site located in the Fatah-controlled West Bank. Fatah still takes direction from the...

Two Arab inhabitants of Bethlehem were arrested last week on suspicion of throwing stones and firebombs at Rachel’s Tomb. One of them was indicted and is being held under arrest until the end of proceedings. Police have recently been conducting a covert investigation of Arabs who on several recent occasions arrived at the fence near the Rachel’s Tomb compound and are suspected of throwing stones and firebombs at security forces operating there. As the investigation progressed and an evidentiary infrastructure was established, two Arabs aged 18 and 21 were arrested on suspicion of planning, preparing, and throwing firebombs and stones...

Thousands of Jews flooded Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem on Friday morning, the day before her Yahrtzeit (the anniversary of her death), in a clear and poignant reaction to the Palestinian resolution passed by UNESCO on Wednesday, declaring it a Muslim religious site. The actual anniversary is on the Sabbath, the 11th day of the Hebrew month Cheshvan. It is customary for worshippers to visit the site at this time, though Arab violence makes this dangerous and in extreme cases, notably during the 2000 intifada, Israeli security closes the site to Jews. The multitude arriving today were not permitted to enter...

Rachel's Tomb, Cave of the Patriarchs now listed as Muslim sites, Israel condemned over Temple Mount 'aggression.' UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) passed a resolution Wednesday listing the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem as Muslim sites. The resolution - which passed with 26 in favor, six voted against, and 25 abstentions - condemned Israel for archaeological excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem and particularly near the Temple Mount. An initial draft of the resolution had also called for the Kotel (Western Wall) to be listed as an Islamic site...

The Interior Committee discussed a bill presented by MK David Azulai (Shas) on Tuesday, which addressed the “continuous harassment of Jews visiting Kever Rachel,” the tomb of the Jewish matriarch Rachel from the Torah. During the course of the discussion, which was moderated by MK Zevulun Kalfa (Jewish Home), Azulai explained he had raised the issue due to the increase in the frequency of terrorist attacks around Kever Rachel. He noted the 1993 Oslo Accords guaranteed Jews prayer access to the site, adding, “if this is what the agreements look like, we need to be very concerned.” Massive Arab mobs...

Palestinians hurled two improvised grenades at Israelis in Bethlehem on Monday evening in two attacks, injuring one civilian. An explosive was thrown at Rachel's Tomb, causing injuries to one man, who was evacuated to hospital by paramedics. Earlier, an explosive was thrown at an IDF base in the area. No injuries were reported in that attack. Monday's events are the latest indication that Palestinian violence is on the rise, though Israeli policymakers and defense experts remain doubtful that we are on the cusp of a third intifada. Last week, news outlets learned of a secret report by one of the...

Why doesn’t the Israeli government stand up for the rights of Jews to holy sites? Not only is the Temple Mount no longer “in our hands”, but its easier substitute, the Western Wall, has also been conceded by Israel’s government to a group of femminists and cultural extremists. Judaism’s holiest place on earth today is the site of the most severe religious persecution of the Jews. Israeli governments have failed to stand up to wanton Palestinian acts of desecration. It’s the greatest crime of all—a religious and cultural crime of historic proportions. Under pressure from Europe’s multiculturalists, United States, political...

Arabs threw a pipe bomb, Thursday evening, at the complex housing Rachel's Tomb, between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. No injuries or damage were...

The Palestinian Authority wants UNESCO to declare the Patriarchs’ Cave and Rachel’s Tomb as its heritage sites while Israel is excluding them from its own list. A government committee headed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is meeting Tuesday morning to decide on adding 10 more sites to Israel’s official list of heritage sites, but the Bible-based Patriarchs’ Cave and Rachel’s Tomb are not among them Rabbi-Professor Daniel Hershkowitz, Science and Technology Minister and head of the Jewish Home party, issued an urgent appeal to Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser that the two sites be included. The government committee on heritage sites...

JPost special feature: A Library of Congress collection of photographs that document Israel before the creation of the state. The Library of Congress has recently digitalized a collection of over 10,000 photographs, taken by the "American Colony" in Jerusalem, a group of Christian utopians who lived in Jerusalem between 1881 and the 1940s. The photographers returned to the US, and bequeathed their massive collection to the Library of Congress in 1978. The collection includes Winston Churchill's visit to Jerusalem, Jewish expulsions from the Old City during Arab riots, and the building of Tel Aviv. Tens of thousands of Jews -...

Tens of thousands of Jews are expected to visit the Tomb of Rachel next week on the occasion of her “hilula” celebrations, but police warned Monday that the area was very sensitive, and that there were “serious threats” to visitors. Police officials were speaking at at a meeting of the Knesset Public Affairs Committee, responding to requests by MKs that visitors be allowed to approach the site on foot, instead of being required to take a short bus ride from Jerusalem. The ride is inconvenient visitors to waste much time waiting on line and crowding onto buses for an uncomfortable...

In a move that caught the Israeli government and the Jewish world by complete surprise, on October 21, 2010, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the Tomb of the Hebrew Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem "an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories," admonishing the Israeli decision to add these biblical shrines to the list of Jewish historical and archaeological sites as "a violation of international law."[1] The United Nations has become a foremost purveyor of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement. Nowhere has this obsession been more starkly demonstrated than at the World Conference...

Jewish worshippers discover Samaria site spray-painted with graffiti calling for martyrdom; Mesika calls act "barbaric." Palestinians vandalized Joshua's Tomb in Samaria's Timnat Heres with Arabic graffiti overnight Thursday. Hundreds of Jewish worshippers, escorted by the IDF, arrived at the site which is located between Barak and Ariel, and discovered graffiti on surrounding walls which advocated martyrdom.

If you needed any more evidence that the Jewish left is really advocating surrender to the Palestinians instead of peace with the Palestinians, check out the reaction of the Jewish left to the Palestinian claim that Rachel's Tomb and the Kotel (Western Wall) are really mosques. There's been almost no reaction at all. Oh, the Jewish left has had their hands full with really important issues, such as defending the anti-Israel J Street sugar daddy George Soros, and letting Israel know how naughty she is for simply announcing plans for apartment houses in Jerusalem because that upsets the Palestinians and...

Israel on Sunday approved a plan to develop Jerusalem's Western Wall plaza which will cost 85 million shekels (about 23 million U.S. dollars), citing preservation of archaeological sites and the need to upgrade aging infrastructure as its main goals. (Xinhua/Yin Dongxun) Israel on Sunday approved a plan to develop Jerusalem's Western Wall plaza which will cost 85 million shekels (about 23 million U.S. dollars), citing preservation of archaeological sites and the need to upgrade aging infrastructure as its main goals. The plan, slated to stretch from 2011 to 2015, is a "direct continuation of a plan that was approved in...

Kings of Controversy Was the Kingdom of David and Solomon a glorious empire—or just a little cow town? It depends on which archaeologist you ask. The woman sitting on a bench in the Old City of Jerusalem, round-faced and bundled up against the autumn chill, chews on an apple while studying the building that has brought her both fame and aggravation. It doesn't really look like a building—just some low stone walls abutting an ancient terraced retaining wall 60 feet high. But because the woman is an archaeologist, and because this is her discovery, her eyes see what others might...

‘Muslim tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front of it and weep,’ says Information Ministry official. The Western Wall belongs to Muslims and is an integral part of Al-Aksa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif (the Islamic term for the Temple Mount complex, meaning the Noble Sanctuary), according to an official paper published on Monday by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information in Ramallah. The paper, which has been presented as a “study,” was prepared by Al-Mutawakel Taha, a senior official with the ministry, to “refute” Jews’ claims to the Western Wall. In the past, PA leaders and officials have also...

JERUSALEM (RNS) The Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, is actually a Muslim shrine, according to an official report published Monday (Nov. 22) by the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Information. The document, which was written by Al-Mutawakei Tahad, a senior ministry official and respected writer, states that the Wall -- long considered the sole surviving piece of the Second Jewish Temple built atop the Temple Mount more than 2,000 years ago-- is actually part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on Haram al-Sharif, the Arabic name for the Temple Mount. Archeologists maintain that Al-Aqsa was built atop the ruins of...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the Palestinian leadership on Thursday to renounce an official Palestinian report asserting the Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest sites, is not Jewish. Al-Mutawakil Taha, deputy information minister in the Palestinian Authority, published a five-page study on Wednesday disputing Jews' reverence of the shrine as a retaining wall of the compound of Biblical Jewish Temples destroyed centuries ago. The wall is adjacent to a politically sensitive holy complex in a part of Jerusalem that Israel captured in a 1967 war. The area, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as...