Nearly 25 years after the IDF ignominiously pulled out of Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, Israel may at last be on the verge of correcting that grievous affront to Jewish history and destiny.
According to a report last week in Yediot Aharonot, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s Subcommittee on Judea and Samaria, chaired by Religious Zionist Party MK Zvi Sukkot, convened a special session to discuss for the first time the restoration of Israeli sovereignty to the holy site.
IDF officials who participated in the meeting promised to prepare a feasibility study within six weeks, which could pave the way for the renewal of a permanent Jewish presence at the site.
The tomb is the burial place of one of our greatest biblical forebears, and it is one of Israel’s premier sites of religious, historical, and archaeological significance.
Zvi Ilan, one of Israel’s foremost archaeologists, described Joseph’s Tomb as “one of the tombs whose location is known with the utmost degree of certainty and is based on continuous documentation since biblical times” (Tombs of the Righteous in the Land of Israel, p. 365).
According to the Bible, “The bones of Joseph which the Children of Israel brought up from Egypt were buried in Shechem [Nablus] in the portion of the field that had been purchased by Jacob” (Joshua 24:32). The site is also mentioned in the Midrash.
Ancient Christian scholars, Arab geographers, medieval Jewish pilgrims, Samaritan historians, and even 19th-century British cartographers all concur regarding Joseph’s Tomb and its location.
But despite its centrality to our heritage, Joseph’s Tomb was left to the mercy of Palestinian vandals, terrorists, and hoodlums in 2000, who have repeatedly desecrated it ever since.
Who can forget the scenes that were aired worldwide in October 2000 when Palestinians armed with sledgehammers put on display their idea of religious tolerance as they hacked, chopped, and smashed one of the most hallowed sites belonging to the Jewish people?
As a result, the pristine sounds of Jewish prayer that had once filled the skies over Joseph’s Tomb were replaced by plumes of smoke as the invading Arab throng pillaged the compound, setting alight holy books and other sacred religious objects.
The attack on Joseph’s Tomb was the culmination of a process that had begun several days previously when Palestinian policemen and Fatah terrorists launched a coordinated assault on the Israeli soldiers guarding the site. A 19-year-old Druze Israeli border policeman was shot and killed in the attack.
Adding insult to injury, then-prime minister Ehud Barak shortly thereafter ordered the army to abandon Joseph’s Tomb in exchange for promises from the Palestinians that they would honestly and truly – with no fingers crossed – do their best to protect the very same site they had just spent several days blasting with automatic weapons.
Not surprisingly, within a few hours the Palestinians had broken their promise and reduced the site to a pile of flaming ruins.
Why Israel should retake Joseph's Tomb
In retrospect, it is abundantly clear that Israel made a grievous strategic mistake in pulling out of Joseph’s Tomb.
The withdrawal marked the first time that Israel had directly retreated under fire in the face of Palestinian violence, sending the other side an unequivocal message of weakness and vacillation, one that set the stage for many horrors that would follow.
As Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, told the Knesset Subcommittee last week, “After Oct. 7, it’s clear to everyone: When we flee from terror, it chases us. Returning to Joseph’s Tomb will restore security in Shechem and across Israel.”
MK Sukkot was equally adamant: “Joseph’s Tomb must once again host a permanent Jewish presence as part of our sovereign responsibility in Judea and Samaria. Leaving the site in the hands of the Palestinian Authority harms both national security and our values.”
He is absolutely correct.
Approximately once a month, a limited number of Israelis are permitted to visit Joseph’s Tomb with a heavy IDF escort in the wee hours of the night. As Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech said, “The disgrace of nighttime entry missions must end. We are in the Land of Israel, not in exile.”
Indeed, even when Israel repaired the site over the years after acts of Palestinian vandalism, it did so quietly, before dawn, as though ashamed of reclaiming a place that has belonged to our people for millennia.
Enough is enough. The time has come for Israel to right the historic wrong committed 25 years ago and reassert full civil and security control over Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus. This includes permanently stationing IDF forces to protect the site and the pilgrims who visit it.
Second, a Jewish presence should be established in the immediate vicinity – perhaps a yeshiva and visitors center – that would ensure a continuous connection to the tomb and deter future Palestinian vandalism.
Third, a robust public diplomacy campaign must accompany the move, making clear that this is not an act of “provocation” but a fulfillment of Jewish religious rights. Access for those of other faiths should be preserved, just as it is at other Jewish holy sites, but Jewish sovereignty must be restored.
Joseph was one of the founding fathers of the Jewish people. No other nation in the world would think twice about reclaiming its history. And neither should we.
The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.