Why Israeli ultra-Orthodox secretly visit West Bank tomb
More ultra-Orthodox Israelis are refusing to coordinate their visits to the Tomb of Joshua, in the West Bank Palestinian village of Kifl Hares, in what the Israel Defense Forces considers an onerous security risk.
Two cars made their way deep into the Palestinian village of Kifl Hares late on the night of Jan. 5. The 10 passengers wanted to visit the Tomb of Joshua, the traditional burial site of the Israelite leader who succeeded Moses. It was Joshua who began the conquest of Canaan and oversaw the Twelve Tribes’ settlement of the land. The pilgrims’ efforts to reach the tomb discreetly did not end well. They were besieged by local youths, who threw cement blocks at them. Luckily for them, IDF troops were able to extract them from the situation before they suffered any harm. The 10 men were handed over to the police, who arrested them on suspicion of engaging in behavior that could put public safety at risk and for interfering with a public official while performing his duty.
The group has since been released. A leader asking to be identified only by A.Y. told Al-Monitor his story:
“We arrived in the village at about 1 a.m. We parked our cars and entered the compound containing the tomb. Suddenly we heard rocks being thrown. We looked outside and saw that they were smashing the windshields of our cars. I said to my friends, ‘Let’s go outside and chase them away,’ because in other cases like this, we were able to do that. But this was the first time for some of the people I was with to ever visit the tomb. They were afraid. The Arabs didn’t dare enter [the complex], because the entryway is low and narrow. Anyone coming in would get smashed in the head," meaning that the group would have kicked them.
“Some people wanted to call the police, but I was against that. Based on past experience, I knew that we would be arrested, and it would be a big mess. Meanwhile, they started throwing cement blocks at the door too. I thought that we could escape without involving the police, but a few people decided to call anyway, getting us all in trouble. The police said that they would send the army, and that we should stay inside and not go out. It took the army 35 minutes to get there, even though it should only take 10 minutes.
