In what has become a monthly tradition, more than 450 Shomron residents and Breslev hassidim participated in the visit, which was planned and coordinated with the IDF.
Buses filled with excited visitors left from the community of Itamar, located on the outskirts of Shechem. The visit marked the anniversary of the death of Joseph, the son of the patriarch Jacob, who after being sold into slavery by his brothers, rose in stature to eventually rule over Egypt. When his brothers and father finally joined him there, he made them promise that when the Jewish people left Egypt for the Land of Israel, they would bring his body with them for burial there.
Throughout the ages, Jews prayed at the site, until it came under Jordanian control in 1948. In 1967, following the Six Day War, Israel liberated the site and Jewish prayer was renewed there. In the 80s, the Od Yosef Chai (“Joseph Lives”) yeshiva was founded and Jewish yeshiva students studied there full-time. Under the Oslo Accords, Shechem was handed over to the Palestinian Authority, but Jewish access to Joseph’s Tomb was to be guaranteed.
The IDF retreated from Joseph’s Tomb in the first weeks of the Oslo War in an episode that is remembered for the manner in which wounded IDF soldier Madhat Yusuf was abandoned. Yusuf, wounded by Arab gunfire, bled to death at the holy site as the IDF chose to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority for his evacuation instead of sending troops in to rescue him.
Over the past year, the IDF has begun enabling renewed visits by Jewish worshippers to the holy site on an almost monthly basis.
After the visitors left the city of Shechem early Thursday morning, three terrorists attacked an IDF force stationed near the city’s casbah (open-air market). The commander of the 101st paratrooper battalion, Eliezer Toledano, told Arutz-7 that the three armed Arabs intended on targeting the busloads of worshippers. Soldiers identified the terrorists and wounded two.
Before the soldiers moved in, Arabs reported one dead from IDF fire. As the soldiers had not yet opened fire, an investigation revealed that the terrorist had been killed by Arab “friendly fire.”
Buses filled with excited visitors left from the community of Itamar, located on the outskirts of Shechem. The visit marked the anniversary of the death of Joseph, the son of the patriarch Jacob, who after being sold into slavery by his brothers, rose in stature to eventually rule over Egypt. When his brothers and father finally joined him there, he made them promise that when the Jewish people left Egypt for the Land of Israel, they would bring his body with them for burial there.
Throughout the ages, Jews prayed at the site, until it came under Jordanian control in 1948. In 1967, following the Six Day War, Israel liberated the site and Jewish prayer was renewed there. In the 80s, the Od Yosef Chai (“Joseph Lives”) yeshiva was founded and Jewish yeshiva students studied there full-time. Under the Oslo Accords, Shechem was handed over to the Palestinian Authority, but Jewish access to Joseph’s Tomb was to be guaranteed.
The IDF retreated from Joseph’s Tomb in the first weeks of the Oslo War in an episode that is remembered for the manner in which wounded IDF soldier Madhat Yusuf was abandoned. Yusuf, wounded by Arab gunfire, bled to death at the holy site as the IDF chose to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority for his evacuation instead of sending troops in to rescue him.
Over the past year, the IDF has begun enabling renewed visits by Jewish worshippers to the holy site on an almost monthly basis.
After the visitors left the city of Shechem early Thursday morning, three terrorists attacked an IDF force stationed near the city’s casbah (open-air market). The commander of the 101st paratrooper battalion, Eliezer Toledano, told Arutz-7 that the three armed Arabs intended on targeting the busloads of worshippers. Soldiers identified the terrorists and wounded two.
Before the soldiers moved in, Arabs reported one dead from IDF fire. As the soldiers had not yet opened fire, an investigation revealed that the terrorist had been killed by Arab “friendly fire.”