Palestinian Denial of Religious Freedom

Oslo Commitments and the Situation Today

An underlying basis to the Oslo Peace Process was the desire to establish confidence-building measures for both sides. Such measures were particularly critical on the issue of control of holy sites and access to them. The danger of religious disputes over contested holy sites pushed the two sides to explicitly put in writing the commitments to maintaining the sites and providing free access to them. 1

Today, however, access to virtually all the Jewish holy sites in Palestinian territories is denied or restricted. Moreover, Jews attempting to visit these sites are likely to be killed, as was the case of Rabbi Hillel Lieberman who attempted to visit Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. Both Joseph's Tomb and the ancient "Shalom on Israel" Synagogue in Jericho were looted and destroyed by Palestinians in early October 2000.

Israeli policemen evacuating Jewish worshippers from the Western Wall after a barrage of rocks thrown by Palestinian rioters on top of the Temple Mount.

On Yom Kippur, October 10, 2000, rioting Palestinians attempted to destroy the Tomb of Joshua Ben Nun, located in Kifl Harith, near the Samarian city of Ariel. They were stopped by IDF troops at the site.

Since the outbreak of the hostilities in September 2000, Rachel's Tomb has come under furious gun and firebomb assault by Palestinian gunmen, including members of the Palestinian Authorities security forces. Jewish worshippers were prevented from approaching the site until the end of November when bulletproof buses started shuttling the worshippers to the door of the fortified tomb.

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