This coming Wednesday, the Jerusalem District Court is expected to rule on the saga of accessibility for people with disabilities and the elderly at the Cave of the Patriarchs. This, after Defense Minister Benny Gantz also ordered promoting the accessibility program and the move was stopped in a petition by Leftist organizations to the court. Yesterday, a number of Likud MKs toured the cave, including MK Amit Halevi, who stated that hearing can't compare to seeing and that court judges should have chosen to come to the area to understand the magnitude of the absurdity of preventing accessibility. "There's access to both the cave plaza and the roof of the building. The absurdity cries to heaven, the sovereign state of Israel needs the approval of Taysir Abu Sneina, who was part of the cell that murdered six yeshiva students in 1980?" MK Halevi asks, and calls to fulfill the expression of kindness, the great symbol of our ancestor Abraham, and make the cave accessible. The petitioners' argument is defined by them as the expropriation of Palestinian land. Halevy believes that the absurdity did begin with the handing over of the keys to the Waqf by Moshe Dayan, the uncle of MK Uzi Dayan, who guided the MKs' visit yesterday, but after the Hebron municipality did not respond to requests to make the place accessible, the court should oblige the State of Israel to make it accessible. "This is a lawn to the right of the stairs, open space, and nothing will happen if there is a path that will be arranged for the disabled. ח"כ עמית הלוי צילום: חזקי ברוך "All this area should belong to the State of Israel and all the absurdity begins there. Is there a legacy for the Children of Abraham more than accessibility for the disabled? It is just a matter of regulating the area without changing it. We waited many years for the Hebron municipality to do it itself," says Halevi, noting that since the Hebron agreements provided the area for management by the Hebron municipality, the Civil Administration seeks to carry out any action only in an orderly manner and in accordance with the rules set, despite its being absurd. "The attitude of the State of Israel to the mighty monument that Herod built on the tombs of the Patriarchs should be a place of honor in the Jewish pantheon, and instead the gap between our connection to the place and the administrative legal treatment of the place is shocking. It is impossible to build a roof to allow orderly prayer and it is impossible to renew the archeological excavations. All this had to happen a long time ago and all this case is holding back the most important things for the people, preserving their identity and heritage. These are unbearable things and we must change them."
