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Rachel's Tomb will be incorporated within Jerusalem's new security ring; critics charged the cabinet had annexed the territory into the city.
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| By Debbie Berman September 12, 2002 |
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The security cabinet approved on Wednesday Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposal to incorporate Rachel's Tomb, located outside of Bethlehem, within a security ring being built around Jerusalem. Access to the holy site was guaranteed by Israeli-Palestinian agreements but the violence of the past two years has made it difficult for worshippers to visit. Critics said the cabinet decision "annexed" the territory into Jerusalem city limits.
The cabinet-approved plan calls for a new access road to the tomb to be built by the IDF and the Jerusalem Municipality. The army's roadblock and crossing point from Bethlehem into Jerusalem would be moved 200 meters to the south. The cabinet decision was reached as part of the deliberations regarding the construction of a defensive barrier around Jerusalem to prevent infiltration of Palestinian terrorists into the city.
Jews have traditionally visited the tomb, where the Biblical matriarch Rachel is believed to be buried, to pray and seek blessings. Since the start of the Intifada such visits have become increasingly dangerous. The tomb compound, which is surrounded by a Palestinian neighborhood, a refugee camp and an Islamic cemetery, has been a flashpoint of conflict between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen. Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, who was present for the cabinet debate, voiced his support of the decision, saying the tomb "always was and always will be part of Israel."
Interior Minister Eli Yishai, one of the plan's staunchest supporters, read an excerpt from the Biblical portion for Rosh Hashanah depicting the matriarch Rachel crying for her exiled children. Yishai said the decision was "essential to security and to Judaism." The religious establishment supported what it called a "historic decision" to protect one of Israel's holiest sites.
Wednesday's cabinet decision came in sharp contrast with the fate of Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, which was destroyed by the Palestinians and transformed into a mosque following the IDF's relinquishing of control there.
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer offered an alternative plan that would have provided access to Rachel's Tomb via an overpass from Israeli-controlled areas half a kilometer away. Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh, who supported the Defense Minister's plan, criticized the Sharon-backed cabinet decision, saying Israel would effectively be annexing Palestinian territory. "This is a flawed decision that violates the Gaza-Bethlehem first agreement," he said.
Sharon rejected Ben-Eliezer's plan, saying the tomb has tremendous importance to the Jewish People. He asked, "What is an elderly woman with packages who dreamed for years of visiting Rachel's Tomb to do? Do you expect her to walk 500 meters by foot? Rachel's Tomb has tremendous importance to the Jewish nation, and access to it must be unrestricted."
"I thought we learned our lesson at Joseph's Tomb," said Construction and Housing Minister Natan Sharansky. He rejected Ben-Eliezer's plan, which "would still allow Palestinians to raise provocations whenever they wanted to."
The cabinet decision provoked an angry response among Palestinians and members of the opposition. Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser feared that the decision would impact negatively on future tourism in his city. Opposition leader MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz) stated, "Rachel's Tomb is important to the Jewish nation, but the worries of the mothers of today demand that we act with reason. Unrestricted passage to Rachel's Tomb is desired, but we cannot adopt the principle that access to holy sites is attainable through annexation of territory."
Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin denied the annexation claims, explaining: "It's not an annexation. It's securing a Jewish site with a secure passage to it. This is only a decision of principle that this site will be under Israeli security control so Jews can go there. It's one of the most holy sites to Jews."
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