Samaria Regional Council head Gershon Mesika is spearheading a political and financial effort to rebuild the tomb of the biblical figure Joseph, located in Shechem, 30 miles north of Jerusalem. The tomb was desecrated and pillaged by Arabs in October 2000, and remains in an area under control of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Mesika was among nine busloads of Jews who entered Joseph's Tomb at 1:00 A.M. Friday to say selichot, the penitential prayers that are customarily recited during the weeks preceding Rosh HaShana. The Jewish worshippers, who brought generators with them for electricity, reported that the occasion was a moving one, despite the run down and ravaged state of the tomb, which is currently being used by Arabs as a garbage dump. Rabbi Aharon Katzin of the Izri philanthropic foundation and Abe Cohen, a philanthropist from the U.S., participated in the late night prayer service. Mesika has established a lobby group numbering 25 Knesset members for restoring Joseph's Tomb and hopes to recruit funds for the project. Also present at the Tomb was Itzik Bar, IDF Commander of the Samaria Brigade . After getting off to a rocky start in his relationship with the Jewish population in the region, Brigade Commander Itzik Bar is said to be making efforts to become sensitive to the Jewish population's values and faith. Shortly after being named to the position of Samaria Brigade Commander, Bar created a negative first impression when he placed restrictions on Jews wanting to travel in portions of Judea and Samaria. The restrictions were explained as stemming from concern that Jewish nationalists were seeking to provoke violent clashes with the police. While they were in force, soldiers inspected Jewish vehicles at checkpoints and required permits to travel. Ephraim Bluth, a leading figure in the region, wrote the following after his night visit to the destroyed tomb of Joseph: I recently had an opportunity to visit the Tomb of the biblical Joseph - Yosef Hatzadik - in Shechem. Given the location, in a viper's den of terrorism, such visits need be organized with the active cooperation of the IDF, which provides worshippers with several layers of security. A disparate group of adults and teenagers, bonded by a mutual desire to pray at the tomb gathered at an army base situated near the Hawara Junction, just south of Shechem. Shortly after 1 a.m., we traveled to one of the entrances controlled by the IDF and entered Shechem from the east. A few minutes later, we disembarked the bus and streamed into the remains of what had been (until October 2000) the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva, encompassing Joseph's tomb. The visit was a difficult venture, from an emotional point of view. On the one hand, I felt a sense of privilege to be present at the burial site of one of our foremost religious and historical figures. On the other hand, I felt a sense of sadness and betrayal that my own government has been, and continues to be, unable and unwilling to prevent the defiling of a site that is so precious and so holy to Jews. From the torched and scarred ruins of Joseph's tomb, amidst the rubble left behind by a local Arab mob, I was able to gaze up at the growing Jewish community of Elon Moreh and at the expanding yeshiva there which is at its core. I drew a lesson from this experience: these visits to Joseph's tomb must continue. More than anything else, they demonstrate to our enemies that our connection to the Land of Israel, both past and present, will never be severed. Though our own national government has failed to establish and maintain the deterrence needed to insure that Jews can travel freely anywhere in Israel, we must continue to show through determined action, that we remain true to our past leadership and the legacy they left in our hands.
