JERUSALEM (JTA) — A mezuzah was affixed at Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank for the first time in 11 years.
Israeli lawmaker Yisrael Katz of the Likud Party hung the mezuzah on the door of a prayer room at the complex in the presence of about 2,000 Jewish Israelis who traveled late on Wednesday night to pray at the site near Nablus. The visit was prearranged with Israel’s military.
"The time has come for us to return to this site in order to continue Joseph’s legacy and resume our sovereignty," Katz said, according to Ynet.
Joseph’s Tomb was vandalized in October 2000 after it was handed over to the Palestinian police. The handover came after violence at the site that left Israeli Druse soldier Madhat Yusuf dead of a gunshot wound. Palestinian rioters would not allow emergency medical professionals to help Yusuf at the site.
Official monthly visits to the tomb were reinstituted in 2009, and the site was renovated in 2010.
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