Many hundreds of people visited Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem - just several hundred meters south of the Jerusalem municipal border - in commemoration of the traditional anniversary of the death of the Matriarch Rachel. Nearby, a much more modest crowd participated in the affixing of a Mezuzah on a new Jewish property adjacent to Rachel's Tomb. Journalist Judy Lash Balint, who participated in the modest event, described it:

"A small group gathered to watch as Minister of Tourism Rabbi Benny Elon put up the first mezuzah. He noted that it's the first Jewish building in Bethlehem in thousands of years. The IDF commander stationed there for the past several weeks looked on, together with the attorney for the project and the contractor responsible for the renovations. Former Knesset Member Chanan Porat strode in to join several of the young men who had worked behind the scenes to bring the project to fruition. A few American supporters managed to witness the scene. Standing out amongst the crocheted kippot was Rabbi Rabinovich, rabbi of the Kotel and other holy sites, resplendent in black coat and black hat..."

Ten public Egged buses arrive at the holy site daily - in marked contrast to the emptiness following its closure after the onset of the Oslo War. The abandonment may well have continued until today had not a group of 30 women taken things into their own hands. A few weeks after the site was closed, they walked, with their babies, to Rachel's Tomb from the Gilo Junction. They were forcibly evacuated that afternoon - but were promised that civilians in bulletproof buses would be allowed to visit later that day. The situation has in fact improved since then, and the number of visitors has risen dramatically.



Those who initiated the purchase and renovation of the Jewish property adjacent to Kever Rachel did so in the knowledge that without a Jewish presence in the area, Rachel's Tomb could meet the same fate as Joseph's Tomb - abandoned and destroyed by Moslem vandals, almost hermetically closed off to Jewish visitors. The new property, immediately south of Rachel's Tomb, is a three-story building housing an army unit on one floor, a kollel (Torah study group) on the next, and a self-contained apartment at the top. Bulletproof windows have been installed, and the house has been physically linked to Kever Rachel by a cement block wall and roof.