Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman is working to make the Ma’aras HaMachpelah accessible, according to a letter he sent two weeks ago to MK (Bayit Yehudi) Shuli Muallem. In the letter, Lieberman admitted that it was difficult to solve the problem.

“We are well aware of the problem,” wrote the minister’s senior aide to the chairman of the Bayit Yehudi party. “We toured the site and are working hard to find a solution.”

However, he later wrote that making such arrangements is met with difficulty, for “As you know, the matter is very sensitive at the international level, and we hope to succeed it soon.”

The issue of accessibility at the holy site made the news recently after many complained that they could not visit the compound. Last week, a petition was signed by a group of people from different sectors and political views, including Likud members, social activists and Prof. Amir Hatzroni, who in the past expressed their opposition to the settlement enterprise.

A few weeks ago, Former Rishon L’Tzion HaGaon HaRav Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, who was forced have border police assist in carrying his wheelchair up the stairs. Deputy head of the Kiryat Arba Local Council, Yisrael Bramson stated, “It is unacceptable that tens of thousands of people with disabilities will suffer and be humiliated in order to be mispallel at the Ma’aras HaMachpelah”.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)