Palestinian Muslim Religious Intolerance

February 2003

Palestinian Muslim Religious Intolerance

by Ryan Jones - February 27, 2003

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Sunday confirmed reports that Palestinian Arabs had reduced to a pile of rubble the tombstone marking the traditional burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph in the Samarian town of Shechem.
While Arab Muslims have for more than two years desecrated the complex surrounding Joseph's Tomb, the actual burial site - the authenticity of which archeologists say is backed by compelling evidence - had until sometime during the past two weeks been left untouched.
The site corresponds to the account of Joseph's burial in the land of Israel given in the biblical book of Joshua:
"Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph's descendants."
Under the Oslo Accords, this Jewish and biblical holy site was to remain under Israeli jurisdiction, despite being located in Shechem - an ancient Jewish town now inhabited by Arabs under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
On October 7, 2000, however, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak withdrew IDF forces and evacuated Israeli civilians from the site after Arab attacks against Joseph's Tomb intensified as part of the overall Palestinian terrorist war against Israel.
PA assurances to Barak that the holy site would be protected from desecration notwithstanding, the official destruction of the Joseph's Tomb complex by the Palestinians began only hours after the last IDF soldiers left as a result of the increased dangers of continuing to guard the tomb.
Within hours of the IDF withdrawal, Palestinian Muslims stormed the site - with no visible effort by PA to stop them - destroying all Jewish religious objects, and began tearing apart the stone building over Joseph's Tomb with pick axes.
Smoke was later seen rising from site, and the dome over the patriarch's grave received a new coating of "Muslim green" paint as PA bulldozers began clearing the compound area.
The recently discovered destruction of the actual tombstone, however, has apparently crossed a redline with several Israeli leaders.
Natan Sharansky, slated to server as Minister of Diaspora Affairs in the next government, issued a formal protest over the incident during Sunday's cabinet meeting, calling on Israel's Foreign Ministry to publicize photos of the desecration in the foreign media.
"If we would have razed the gravesite of one of the founders of Islam, billions of Muslims would have taken to the streets. It's inconceivable that the world should not know about this travesty," Sharansky reportedly said.
"We are talking about the tomb of one of the fathers of our nation," he stressed during the cabinet meeting.
Though Sharansky's defense of Joseph's Tomb is indeed noble, his suggestion would likely produce little effect, as the international community has on a consistent basis overlooked and ignored Muslim religious intolerance against Jews in the Middle east and the destruction of Jewish holy sites in Israel.
Some examples:
· Shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the newly formed PA appointed its own religious authority to oversee the Temple Mount in Jerusalem - the Palestinian Waqf. For little less than a decade, the Waqf has engaged in a systematic program, documented by Israeli archeologists, of gutting the Temple Mount of all vestiges of its Jewish past to make room for a single massive Temple Mount mosque. The structural changes and excavations on the Mount are a violation of the Oslo Accords and several other agreements signed after. The international reaction has been nonexistent.
· Not days after the initial Muslim attack on Joseph's Tomb in October 2000, Palestinian Arabs from Jericho ransacked and destroyed the ancient Bet Shalom synagogue in the Jordan Valley. International reaction was nonexistent.
· Palestinian Arabs have on a frequent basis attacked Jewish worshippers entering and leaving the tomb of the biblical matriarch Rachel near the entrance to Bethlehem. These attacks have multiplied exponentially over the past two years. International reaction has remained nonexistent.
· For years Jewish worshippers at Judaism's holiest accessible site - the Western Wall in Jerusalem - have endured incessant stone throwing attacks from Muslims on the Temple Mount platform some 100 feet above them. The international reaction has been nonexistent.
No less worrying is the apparent apathy of the international community towards documented Muslim intolerance and persecution of Christians in Middle East.
· For decades the Arab Muslim government in Khartoum has conducted a brutal genocidal war against Sudan's black Christians in the south of the country. International reaction has been extremely minimal at best.
· During the late 1970's and until the IDF invasion of 1982, the PLO held virtual mastery of southern Lebanon. During that time, hundreds, if not thousands of Lebanese Christians were persecuted and killed by Yasser Arafat's terrorist forces. Christian towns and holy sites were systematically desecrated and taken over. The international reaction to these atrocities was nonexistent.
· In almost all areas of the Muslim-controlled Middle East, Christians and Jews live under what is known as "dhimmi" status - a subordinate position to their Muslim overlords. Dhimmi status usually affords one a life of undeserved persecution. A recent example saw two Palestinian Arab brothers subjected to local and official persecution and harassment after they converted to Christianity.
Saudi Arabia goes one step further, forbidding the practice of any religion but Islam on its soil under pain of death. The international reaction remains limited to nonexistent.
On rare occasions, the international community does raise a collective outcry over Muslim destruction of holy sites belonging to other religions - such as the reaction to the recent Taliban destruction of an ancient statue of Buddha in Afghanistan.
Such extraordinary instances, however, seem to do little but provide legitimacy to the assertion that the voiced religious concerns of others mean little to the Muslim world.
The destruction of Joseph's Tomb is symptomatic of a problem that would not be solvable by mere words of protest, even if any were heard.
Islam has grown in leaps and bounds over the past five decades by exploiting Judeo-Christian religious tolerance in pursuit of its Koranic quest to subjugate its two main religious rivals, where necessary by force.
The destruction of Joseph's Tomb in Shechem is only the most recent pro-active Arab effort to undermine the legitimacy of Judaism's claim to its ancient homeland and ensure eventual complete and undisputed Islamic control of the entire Middle East.

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