A
painting of Rachel's Tomb as it looked from the late 1800s
to the 1990s. The brick cube with the dome was constructed
around 1620 by the Ottomans; the white extension was added
in 1860 by Sir Moses Montefiore. Image courtesy Committee
for Rachel's Tomb.
Rachel's Tomb, a Jewish Holy Place, Was Never a Mosque
Reprint from: The Jerusalem Center for Public
Affairs |
Nov. 2010 | Nadav Shragai
* UNESCO has declared that Rachel's Tomb
near Jerusalem is the Bilal ibn Rabah mosque - endorsing
a Palestinian claim that first surfaced only in 1996 and
which ignores centuries of Muslim tradition.
* As opposed to the Temple Mount and the
Cave of the Patriarchs which also serve as the location
of mosques, Rachel's Tomb never served as a mosque for
the Muslims. The Muslim connection to the site derives
from its relation to Rachel and has no connection to
Bilal ibn Rabah, Mohammed's first muezzin.
* Rachel's Tomb, located some 460 meters
south of Jerusalem's municipal boundary, has been
identified for over 1,700 years as the grave of the
Jewish matriarch Rachel. Many generations of Jews have
visited the place for prayer. The depiction of Rachel's
Tomb has appeared in thousands of Jewish religious
books, paintings, photographs, stamps, and works of art.
* There is a Muslim cemetery on three
sides of the compound mainly belonging to the Bedouin
Taamra tribe, which began burying its dead at the site
due to its proximity to a holy personality. Members of
the Taamra tribe harassed Jews visiting the tomb and
collected extortion money to enable them to visit the
site. With this background, Moses Montefiore obtained a
permit from the Turks to build another room adjacent to
Rachel's Tomb in 1841 to keep the Muslims away from the
room of the grave and to help protect the Jews at the
site.
* Jewish caretakers managed the site from
1841 until it fell into Jordanian hands in 1948. In
contravention of the armistice agreement, Jordan
prevented Jews from accessing the site during all the
years of its rule (1948-1967). On October 19, 2010, the
anniversary of her death, some 100,000 Jews visited
Rachel's Tomb.
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