Sukkot Celebrated at Renovated Joseph’s Tomb

Author Alad Benari 09.17.2010

“This is a symbolic closure, an exciting historic moment, a tiny repair in the shame of the abandonment of Joseph’s Tomb.”

  On Monday, more than a 1,000 people took part in the special prayers for Sukkot at Joseph’s Tomb. They came from all over Israel to the first massive gathering at the site of the Tomb since the destruction of Joseph’s tomb, 10 years ago by angry Arab pillagers, who destroyed the original stone. According to the article, the restoration operation was very complex and took all night to complete; it began on Saturday night and ended Sunday morning. The operation included, a five-stone slab being lowered into the exact location where the original stone had laid in the ancient tomb structure.

The restoration of the Tomb only brought great excitement to the people who attended and some prominent Rabbis took part in the ceremony, which included former French Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Yosef Sitruck. Soldiers took place in the ceremony and “read from the book of Tehilim (Psalms), many of them with tears of excitement in their eyes.” According to the article, during Sukkot, the ushpizin prayer is recited. This prayer symbolizes the welcoming of 7 guests, one for each day of the holiday: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, David, and Joseph. The significance of Joseph’s tomb is that the prayers took place on the day of Sukkot. This is because according to tradition, Joseph comes and visits the Sukkah, which is, for the people who attended, Joseph’s Tomb.

Regional Council Mayor Gershon Mesika thanked IDF's Samaria Brigade and Civil Administration for their cooperation and assistance in the restoration efforts, but according to the article, he went on to say that this excitement is also mixed with disgrace due to the nation’s abandonment of the tomb 10 years prior. He even goes on to state that he urges the Israeli government to make amends and “allow the Jewish stay at Joseph's Tomb, which was anchored even in the Oslo Accords, in which it was determined that Joseph's Tomb will remain under full Israeli control.” The article even mentions MK Hotovely, an Israeli politician and a doctorate student at the Faculty of Law in Tel Aviv University, says that she believes that the Jews should be allowed to pray at Joseph’s tomb regularly.

Joseph’s Tomb is highly significant in Yom Kippur and according to the article, even before the Tomb was restored, Thursday, September23, hundreds of people gathered in the Samaria community of Mitzpe Yosef, which actually overlooks the Tomb. The ceremony focused primarily around the writing of a Sefer Torah, which organizers believes will eventually be placed inside the Tomb once Israel has a permanent border. The ceremony also celebrated the announcement that the coming year will be known as the year of Joseph’s Tomb and the year will include educational and public activities, as well as many other special events.

Through observation, the author does not share his point of view on the matter, especially on how he feels about the abandonment of the Tomb before now. He only states what happened and quotes people who have control in the government in some way. Whether or not the author expresses his own point of view, I think that it would have been better if he would have shared some of the views citizens that either attended or not and how this historic site makes them feel. This would make the article a lot more approachable and possibly make the reader feel some type of emotion because of this historic event. It is very obvious that this is a reliable source. He does not present his objective opinion on the matter and therefore only states the facts as to what took place. How more reliable can that be? The reader isn’t thrown into the mind of the author and I find that really reliable. He also has been writing for the Israel National News: Arutz Sheva for a while now. After doing some research on the author, he has been writing on Israel for while now and must know his stuff.

Early Release of Tom Hurndall's Killer Symptom of Wider Israeli Crimes

An Israel Defense Forces soldier, Taysir Hayb, convicted of manslaughter in the 2003 death of British photography student and peace activist, Tom Hurndall, was released from jail on September 8th. Thomas Hurndall was shot in 2003 while photographing an International Solitary Movement protest in the Gaza strip city of Rafah. Hayb was part of the Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion and was stationed in a watchtower in the Gaza strip. The court found that Hayb was guilty of violating in shooting the activist, therefore, not only committing manslaughter, Hayb was convicted of obstruction to Justice and false testimony. According to the article, the Israeli government failed to contact the family about Hayb’s early release, resulting in British Foreign government having to notify them. The article then goes into detail how the Israeli government does not know how to take responsibility for their actions, stating that “His,” Thomas Hurndall, “murder was only a symptom of a much wider culture of impunity in the Israeli army.” The article bashes on the Israeli government by arguing that this early release of Hayb reinforces the accusations that the Israeli government can commit war crimes without fear of serious consequences and that Israel has disregard for international law and opinion.

The article is clearly a bias opinion due to the fact that it comes from a Palestinian News Agency. The article states that Hurndall’s presence in the Gaza strip was to protest against the shooting of children, who play outside their homes and their deaths never being investigated. The article uses the death of children to entice their audience and make them sympathize with them, as to draw in followers. I think that this is both smart and mean. The author is making it seem that the Israel government is impassive and willing to anything in order to get ahead. The article says, “[Israeli] security forces killed more than 2,200 Palestinians who were not taking part in the hostilities at the time they were killed.” Supposedly only 287 were opened into a Police investigation and only 33 of these cases resulted in the filing of indictments. This is clever to use numbers as a way to reinforce their arguments. The author is making it seem like the Israeli government is not doing their job. According to the article, the Amnesty International believes that “Israeli soldiers kill civilians in Gaza with near-total impunity, week in week out.” The author is trying to make the Israeli government seem like this kill-all agency with no sense of remorse or responsibility.

Even Tom’s family supports this Palestinian view on the killing. His father states this is not a tragedy, but the Israeli government’s fault and responsibility for the death of his son. He would like the Israeli government to acknowledge this and take the appropriate actions to ensuring that civilians are not shot through changing policies. A witness to the shooting believes that this was a part of “a culture of impunity in which generations of Israelis are taught that Arabs hate them and are subhuman.” The article states that the Israelis are given guns and feel that it is okay to shoot Palestinians because they know that they can get away with it. The article and people believe that it is an “occupation and aggression of Zionist policy is harming ordinary Israelis as well as Palestinians.”

This article is mainly based on an opinion from a bias source. I do not believe that this is from a reliable source because the point of the article seems to be to gather followers against the opposite side. But I do not completely believe that the WAFA is completely wrong with the way they are doing things to gather followers. This is because they are part of a larger group that truly believes these ideas. I just think that we aren’t hearing the entire story about what had happened in 2003 or the reasons that the Israeli government did release Hayb.


For more information on this, read Early Release of Tom Hurndall's Killer Symptom of Wider Israeli Crimes