So what are chareidim doing visiting PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in his Ramallah office? The meeting held earlier this week surrounds the machlokes over arrangements to visit Kever Yosef. It appears the PA leader may be playing a role in arranging visits for chareidi mispallalim.
The reason for the requested intervention surrounds the difficulties experienced by the Yesod Olam organization that arranges for groups to visit Kever Yosef with IDF approval and protection. Their groups are very limited in size by the IDF and visits too often entail prolonged waits to enter and the actual time at the tziyun is extremely limited. Buses transporting yishuv residents appear to receive priority from military commanders Yesod Olam claims.
Yesod Olam directors feel the “settlers” used their connections with local IDF commanders at the expense of their buses, and this has resulted in unacceptable conditions during visits. Yesod Olam has tried working proper Israeli channels but appears to be stonewalled, leading to his decision to turn to the PA.
A channel to senior official Jibril Rajoub was opened and they are now trying to work with PA officials, bringing the matter to the desk of Abu Mazen.
It would appear that even when it comes to Kever Yosef there is friction between the dati leumi and chareidi communities, a sad state of affairs indeed, exacerbated by the fact that an organization turns to Israel’s enemy for assistance and possible willing to rely on the terrorist authority to protect mispallalim visiting the area, deciding to circumvent the IDF.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
Something that should make every shudder:
Ask what the cost is to the Palestinians of accomodating what Hareidim want (to daven in peace,to learn in peace, to transfer funds from America in peace, etc.)? No cost. Abbas can, if needed, make tremendous “concessions” to the Hareidim that don’t cost him anything.
Why is this important? If the Lapid plan goes through (not likely, but not impossible), the government will start arresting hareidim and hareidiot for failing to report for service in the army. At that point, it becomes conceivable for the anti-zionist Hareidim to “change sides” (back to the situation when De Haan was murdered, certainly they can argue that the famous deal with Ben Gurion is no longer in effected due to arrests of the Bnei Yeshiva and the frum girls).
If the Hareidim go from “tolerating” the medinah to openly opposing it what are some effects. For starters, Jerusalem will have an anti-zionist majority – if they turn out to vote, they win. The Dati Leumi (and to a lesser extent the hiloni zionists) will be embarassed by hareidi peacefully working with the Arabs – as the world will see it, these modern, western types have no trouble getting into a war with their neighbors, but their “primitive, backwards, religious fanatic” cousins seem to have great social skills when it comes to peaceful coexistence. This will be more than a public relations problem, but could seriously undermine international support for Israel.
So this isn’t about someone wanting to visit a purported tomb (no one knows for sure, and unlike the Brits we don’t open graves to see who is buried there) – it’s about a possible earthquake that will be triggered if the Lapid plan is implemented.
Some people (like poster #1) do not understand the Arab mentality. The Arabs wish to destroy every Jew, mina’ar viad zaken taf vinashim. The petty silliness (enough with the zionist narashkeit, no one uses that term anymore) and pitting one yid against another weakens us. Learn from history.
I heard that Abbas agreed to open Kever Yosef to the chareidi busses on a more regular basis. He also agreed to open a large chareidi cemetary right next to Kever Yosef. Abbas told the chareidi group to make sure to bring a copy of what they want written on their tombstones when they come.
#1 A JEW is a JEW is a JEW is a JEW.
Nationalist, Zionist, Anti-Zionist, Self-hating Jew, Torah Jew, Traditional Jew and Intermarried Jew….all the same.
Don’t the Muslims believe in all prophets including Abraham,Moshe,Yeshu and on top of that some Muslims are named Yousef ?!?!?!?!?
Its important to have good relationships with Abas and the Palestinian Authority since there is a good chance that Kever Yosef and the immediately surrounding area will be under PA control after a final peace settlement. Thus, the Chareidim will need PA approval to daven at the Kever in the future.
Another address that may be helpful is His Excellency, Adly Yaish mayor of Shchem. Many residents of Shchem claim credibly that they are the tribes of Efraim and Menasha. Therefore it’s possible to say, “We believe the same things you do”. Just like you live in Shchem to be next to the grave of our father Yosef the tsadik, so to we wish to pray there. You don’t like the apostate Western colonialist government, neither do we. In addition we recognize we should make a contribution to the city to cover the expenses of our visit and even give the mayor a nice birthday present due to his wise and benevolent leadership. It’s possible the mission could succeed because of bravado and a sense of humor.