(Jerusalem Post) Yishai Fleisher - In the ancient city of Hebron stands a colossal, 2,000-year-old burial monument built by the Jewish king Herod the Great atop the 3,800-year-old tombs of Abraham, his wife Sarah, and most of the founding family of the Jewish People. The last person to be buried there was the Jewish forefather Jacob, also known as Israel. It is this structure, known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs or the Cave of Machpela in Hebron, which the PA is audaciously trying to claim as its own at UNESCO. The Book of Genesis records Abraham's negotiation and purchase of the Machpela cave in Hebron for a family burial plot. Archaeological remains attest to Jewish life in Hebron during the First and Second Temple periods. Throughout the Middle Ages, Jewish and Christian travelers noted the presence of a Jewish community living in Hebron and worshiping at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. In 637 CE, during the early Muslim conquest, Muslims and Jews coexisted in Hebron. But in 1267 CE, the Mamluks, a Muslim military caste from Egypt, captured Hebron and the Tomb of the Patriarchs and rebranded it the Mosque of Ibrahim. They imposed a jihadist policy of banning Jews, Christians and all non-Muslims from entering the building. Yet even under Mamluk rule, Jews stubbornly held prayer services at the outside wall of the building for the next 700 years. So things went until 1929 when a horrific pogrom ended in the murder of 67 Jews. The community's survivors were then evicted by the occupying British. In the Six-Day War, Israel regained control of Hebron and the tombs, and Jews flocked to the site. Since then, secure passage, freedom of access, and freedom of worship for all faiths has been ensured at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, while 700,000 pilgrims and tourists visit the site yearly. If the UN and UNESCO cannot uphold the values and principles necessary to protect world cultures and heritage sites, let its validity be brought to question - not that of the Jewish People.
2017-07-05 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive