The religious and territorial dimensions of the Israel-Palestine conflict came together again with Arab assertions, demonstrations, and stone-throwing in response to Prime Minister Netanyahu's announcement that he would include Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarch's on a list of Israel's national heritage sites.
The prime minister's announcement adds nothing tangible to Israel's control of the sites. Rachel's Tomb is between Jerusalem's southern suburbs and the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, and has been on Israel's side of the security barrier, and tucked behind imposing towers and gates constructed as a result of attacks on Jewish visitors during the uprising that began in 2000. The Cave of the Patriarchs is located in Hebron, and has been accessible to Jewish as well as Muslims since the IDF began guarding it after the 1967 war.
The reality of the claims associated with these places (that the Biblical Rachel is buried in one site and that Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah are buried in the other) is no more certain than claims for the Church of the Nativity, the Holy Sepulcher, or any number of burial places claimed for historic rabbis throughout the Galilee. Christian communities have selected competing sites for the Holy Sepulcher, and Samuel was decent to leave two tombs, which facilitate a division of a hilltop structure west of Jerusalem into a mosque and a synagogue on different levels, with each claiming the prophet's remains.
Including the sites on a list of Israeli historical sites need not preempt a political division of the Holy Land. Israel has obtain visiting rights for Jews at the tombs of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav in the Ukraine, Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira in Egypt, and several rabbis in Morocco, and is working to keep a shopping mall from encroaching on the site of Auschwitz without raising issues of national sovereignty.
Despite several year's of Israeli control, Palestinians as well as a United Nations official have weighed in against what they claim as a change in status.
Saeb Erekat said, "The unilateral decision to make Palestinian sites in Hebron and Bethlehem part of Israel shows there is no genuine partner for peace, but an occupying power intent on consolidating Palestinian lands."
A United Nations special coordinator said, "These sites are in occupied Palestinian territory and are of historical and religious significance not only to Judaism, but also to Islam, and to Christianity as well."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/world/middleeast/23mideast.html?hpw
Mahmoud Abbas has claimed that the prime minister's announcement represents an Israeli effort to take Muslim holy sites, and threatens an escalation of tensions into a religious war.
Israeli policy about holy sites has been more accommodating to non-Jews than was the practice of the Muslims during the period of Jordanian control between 1948 and 1967. Despite an armistice agreement that holy sites would be open to members of all faiths, Rachel's Tomb, the Cave of the Patriarchs, the Mount of Olives, the entire Old City of Jerusalem including the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, and several historic synagogues were closed to Jews. Since 1967 Israeli authorities have left day to day management of the Temple Mount to Muslim religious authorities, and they enforce a division of the Cave of the Patriarchs between Muslims and Jews. Currently Rachel's Tomb may be accessible only to visitors from the Israeli side of the barriers, but they were constructed in response to attacks against Jewish pilgrims.
After years of recognizing the significant of Rachel's tomb for Jews, Palestinian discourse has begun calling it Bilal ibn Rabah mosque. This resembles Muslim claims that there was never a significant Judaic presence on the Nobel Sanctuary (Temple Mount).and stands as a modern effort to bolster territorial claims with newly created historical tales.
Archaeological research and extra-Biblical writing provides considerable evidence of the Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70. Some may see those as deserving some weight against the Muslim claim of priority on account of Mohamed's horse ride to heaven from the site some 500 years later.
Archaeologists, preachers, myth makers, and believers contribute to the din about rightful possession or control, but the most recent conflicts and accommodations have been more important. Current reality is approaching 43 years and counting since June, 1967.
Proposals for sharing may sell better among secular politicians than claims of monopoly or priority. However, this is a birthplace of monotheism. The notion of One God too easily becomes claims of priority for my view of God. Among the intense, that does not bode well for accommodation.
Ira Sharkansky (Emeritus)
Department of Political Science
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Tel: +972-2-532-2725
Fax +972-2-582-9144
irashark@gmail.com