Joseph's Tomb: A sacred Jewish site on Palestinian land

Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, the target of a Palestinian arson attack, was already partially destroyed 15 years ago at the beginning of the second intifada and later transformed into a mosque.

It is one of several West Bank religious sites that fuel tension between Israelis and Palestinians.

In February 2010, the Israeli government said it wanted to list the tomb along with the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem as Israeli historic monuments.

The Palestinian office of religious sites considers Joseph's Tomb to be an Islamic archeological monument.

For Jews, the tomb of Joseph, an Old Testament figure, is a pilgrimage site visited by Jewish settlers and ultra-orthodox faithful known as Haredi Jews.

The Old Testament holds that Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, was sold by jealous brothers and taken to Egypt, where he became a pharaoh's minister. Joseph is believed to have been buried well after his death in what is now Nablus, in the northern West Bank.

For Palestinians, the tomb is that of sheikh Yussef Dweikat, who died during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. Many historians support that account and estimate that the site was also sacred ground for Samaritans, a Jewish splinter sect.

Now located within the Balata refugee camp, the small structure features Islamic architecture, capped by a white dome that was first restored in the 19th Century.

It was restored a second time when Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. A synagogue and a Talmudic seminary were established there in the 1980s by ultranationalist Jewish settlers.

Israel continued to occupy the site after withdrawing from Nablus in 1995, when it came under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli army fortified its positions there following repeated attacks that were sparked after Israel began digging a disputed tunnel in Jerusalem's Old City in September 1996.

The army pulled back on October 7, 2000, just before the second intifada, or uprising, erupted.

The structure was set ablaze and partially destroyed by Palestinians, who later restored it and transformed it into a mosque.

Since 2007, Jewish pilgrims have been granted access to the tomb one night a month, except during periods of heightened tension.

Source: AFP