Ramallah: The Joseph Tomb in the village of Balata of Nablus remains one of the key unresolved and deteriorating religious issues between the Israelis and the Palestinians, with each party claims the tomb to be a main and undisputed ingredient of its culture and ritual traditions.
Since the tomb was handed over to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Israeli colonists from around the West Bank gather in hundreds to raid the site and perform their rituals.
Nablus Department of Islamic Affairs and Awqaf passed to Gulf News its official record of the number of raids the Israeli colonists conducted on the Joseph Tomb in 2011, where the colonists in big groups raided the tomb 36 times during the past years, ignoring the official procedures of coordination with the PNA.
The department said that only five official and coordinated visits have been paid to the tomb site during the previous year. Currently, Israeli colonists escorted by the Israelis military raid the tomb site at least twice weekly to perform their rituals, mainly at night.
Ayman Dwaikat, who heads the Properties Section at the Nablus Department of Islamic Affairs and Awqaf told Gulf News that Joseph Tomb is an Islamic Waqf land registered at the Nablus Property Registration Department under piece No. 10 of the area 5 of Balata lands at a total size of 661 square metres.
"It is a Muslim mosque, to which Muslim prayers approach to perform their prayers," he said. "The site is built with a Niche (Mihrab of the mosque) indicating the Qibla, the direction in which a Muslim shall perform his prayers," he said.
"The mosque niche which is a semicircular niche in the wall of the mosque that indicates the Qibla is only available in Islam, not in any other monotheist religion," he stressed. He added that on April 14, 1970, the Israeli military commander of the West Bank visited the site and ordered renovation for the tomb.
During the renovation, Israel installed biblical quotes in three languages, Arabic, English and Hebrew on the walls of the site. He added that on November 10, 1982, Israel officially seized the site and set up a religious school in it.
He stressed that only a month later, Israeli colonists and soldiers militarily seized the tomb and prohibited the Palestinian worshipers to enter it, installing huge steal pieces on the niche to delete it.
Since October, 1984, the Israeli colonists started celebrating their festivities inside the tomb, he said, stressing that many Palestinians have died in the site in defense and in an attempt to force the Israeli colonists out of it.
The Joseph Tomb was handed over to the PNA on October 9, 2000, where the Nablus Municipality renovated the site and recovered the niche.
During Al Aqsa Uprising, groups of the Palestinian youth destroyed parts of the site assuming that the Israeli military turned the site into a military base. The Palestinians deny the Israeli Biblical version that Prophet Joseph was buried in the tomb after Prophet Moses dug his grave and brought his body from Egypt to burry him in Nablus.
The Israeli story says that Prophet Joseph requested he should be buried in Palestine in the direction of the Moria Mountain (Jerzim Mountain of Nablus). The Samaritans of Nablus support the Israeli version and believe that the tomb was that of Prophet Joseph.
The residents of the village of Balata believe that the tomb belonged to a Palestinian saint named Yousuf Dwaikat, who came from their area, but the Israelis use the Biblical story to keep a foot in the Palestinian Territories.
The residents of Balata said that Yousef Dwaikat was a known Sufi figure, and that his tomb was just one among hundreds of other tombs of Muslim saints spreading all over Palestine and the Arab world.
The Balata residents said that their ancestors used to visit the tomb to provide their sacrifices and offer financial help to the needy people who spread around the site.
Pre-Islamic era
The Nablus Department of Islamic Affairs and Awqaf said that the site enjoys tremendous historical significance that goes back to pre-Islamic era. The current construction however was made during the Othmani era under the Turkish rule on Palestine, most probably during the 18th century.
The Palestinians highly respect the site and celebrated the "Nabi Yousuf Festival" once a year.
The controversial Joseph Tomb is not on the list of the Nablus Ruins and Antiques Department which does not have any kind of authority on it. Israeli military established towers on top of the Jerzim Mountain, monitoring the site and anything to be done in it should go through the necessary coordination.
Abdullah Kalbounah, who heads the Sites Section at the Nablus Ruins and Antiques Department told Gulf News that those sites spreading all over Palestine are connected to Islamic or historical figures and had been named after them.
"From an archeological perspective, the Joseph Tomb could not have been built in any way earlier than the Mamlouk era," he said.
"In Palestine those sites had been connected to blessing and getting closer to God. Visits to Joseph Tomb aimed at treatment from diseases and financial help to the poor, where animals were slaughtered on the entrance of the site," he added.
"The Joseph Tomb was built during the Othmani era in memory of Prophet Joseph, but the Israeli occupation has taken advantage of this and claimed ownership of the site by force," he said, stressing that the Israelis did not depend on historical and archeological facts to prove their claims.
The Nablus Governorate is currently conducting renovation for the Joseph Tomb, planning to install a high electrified siege to prevent the Israeli colonists from raiding the tomb whenever they desire.
Sources at the governorate told Gulf News that once the siege work is completed the Israeli colonists will have no chance to raid the tomb and get inside it without going through the official coordination between the PNA and Israel.
The Joseph Tomb is open for the Israeli colonists as per the already signed agreement with Israel, the sources said.
