Once again demonstrating its anti-Semitic slant, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) passed a resolution Wednesday saying that the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem were no longer Jewish sites but were actually Muslim sites.
An initial draft of the resolution had also called for the Kotel (Western Wall) to be listed as an Islamic site – or more specifically as an “extension of the Al Mosque” – but that detail was hastily withdrawn after widespread condemnation, including from UNESCO’s own Director-General.
A major strategy of the Palestinians in their goal of ultimately taking over all of Israel is to deny Jewish ties to the land. They do this by de-legitimizing the Jewish connection to the site and/or destroying Jewish Holy sites. That’s why they hold on to the Temple Mount, destroying artifacts. That is why they burned down Joseph’s Tomb and it is why they Claim the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb. But it’s not only Jewish sites, the Palestinians have laid claim to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and in 2002 invaded and trashed Jesus’ birthplace in Bethlehem.
The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron (Chevron in Hebrew) was the first piece of land ever purchased by the Jews in Israel. Approximately 38 centuries Avraham (Abraham), our forefather purchased a cave (at full market price so there would be no question) in Hebron to bury his beloved wife Sarah. The story is in Bereisheet (Genesis) Chapter 23.
The Cave and the adjoining field were purchased and now house the remains of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah. Some say that Esau’s remains are also there, there is a legend that when Jacob was buried in the cave, his twin Esau tried to stop his sons from burying him there. Chushim, the deaf son of , asked what was going on, and became livid when he learned that Esau had halted the funeral of his revered grandfather. With a mighty blow of his sword, Chushim severed Esau’s head, which rolled into the Cave of Machpelah and came to rest in Isaac’s lap, where it remains to this day.
As far as Abraham’s other son, Ishmael who is credited with being the ancestor of the Muslims supposedly he was buried next to his mother in Hijr Ismail, which is next to the Ka’bah (the square black shrine located near the center of the Great Mosque in Mecca and considered by Muslims everywhere to be the most sacred spot on Earth). In the picture below the crescent-like structure to the right of the Ka’bah is Hijr Ismail:
Jews owned land in Hebron where the cave is located pretty much from the time Abraham made his purchase till about 80 years ago.
In 1929, all that changed. On Friday night August 23 Rabbi Ya’acov Slonim’s son invited any fearful Jews to stay in his house. The rabbi was highly regarded in the community, and he had a gun. Many Jews took him up on this offer, and many Jews were eventually murdered there. As early as 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, Arabs began to gather en masse. They came in mobs, armed with clubs, knives and axes. While the women and children threw stones, the men ransacked Jewish houses and destroyed Jewish property. With only a single police officer in Hebron, the Arabs entered Jewish courtyards with no opposition. Rabbi Slonim, who had tried to shelter the Jewish population, was approached by the rioters and offered a deal. If all the Ashkenazi yeshiva students were given over to the Arabs, the rioters would spare the lives of the Sephardi community. Rabbi Slonim refused to turn over the students and was killed on the spot. In the end, 12 Sephardi Jews and 55 Ashkenazi Jews were murdered.
Because of the massacre the remaining Jews left the city, which makes the Cave and the City of Hebron territory occupied by the Palestinian Muslims.
Rachel’s Tomb (Kever Rachel) lies on the northern outskirts of Bethlehem, about 460 meters (about 500 yards) south of the Jerusalem municipal border, and is been identified as the tomb of the matriarch Rachel the beloved wife of Jacob, and mother of Joseph and Benjamin (who died giving birth to Benjamin). There’s a vast amount of literature written by pilgrims; Jewish, Christian and Muslim ones document the site as Rachel’s burial place.
Jews have visited the site for generations, coming to pray, request and plead. The place became a kind of miniature Wailing Wall where suppliant Jews came to pour out their hearts and recount their misfortunes at the bosom of the beloved mother, where they could find consolation and cure.
According to Jewish tradition, Rachel’s tears have special powers. Beginning with the first exile of the Jewish people from the Holy Land, tradition says Rachel’s weeping convinced God to make the exile a short one. Jeremiah (the prophet not the bull frog) 31:15 reads
So says the Lord: A voice is heard on high, lamentation, bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, she refuses to be comforted for her children for they are not. So says the Lord: Refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there is reward for your work, says the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. And there is hope for your future, says the Lord, and the children shall return to their own border.
Writers, poets and biblical exegetics identified her tears with almost every catastrophe or trouble that plagued the Jewish
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