Rachel's Tomb

“Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel was in childbirth, and she had hard labor. When she

was in her hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid; for now you will have another son.” As her soul was departing (for she died), she

named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), and Jacob set

up a pillar at her grave; it is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day.' (Genesis 35:16-20)

Throughout history, Rachel’s tomb has been a holy place for Muslims, Christians and Jews because Rachel is seen as foremother of them all. Therefore, historically, the tomb has been open to everyone until the last Intifada.

Today Rachel’s tomb is surrounded by a 1.3 kilometer long and 12 meter high concrete wall, which is used to annex the area into the Jerusalem municipality. When the second Intifada started in 2000, the Israeli Defense Forces closed the main road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem and occupied several buildings around Rachel’s tomb. A military outpost was built around the tomb, and today only Jews and tourists are allowed to visit it. “Israeli Wall activities in the vicinity of Rachel’s Tomb”, ARIJ 2006

Juliette Banoura, who works at ARIJ (Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem), says that there have been plans to build a religious Jewish school near Rachel’s tomb since 2002. This project has been financed by American Jews. Their leader, Miriam Adani, stated in a February 2005 interview in the Jerusalem Post that the segregation plan in Bethlehem is “the first step towards the establishment of a Jewish community around the Rachel’s tomb compound.” Geopolitical Conditions in Bethlehem gouvernate,(ARIJ 2005). The annexation of Rachel’s tomb to the Jerusalem municipality is a part of the Israeli government’s “Jerusalem envelope” plan. This plan aims to enlarge the settlement of Har Adar (on Palestinian land) until it reaches the settlements of Giv’at Ze’ev and Ma’ale Adumim, thereby connecting them with the Gush Etzion settlement block in the Southern West Bank. ” The Rachel Tomb area is undergoing final wall constructions” (ARIJ 2006).

Family hotel became watch-tower

The implementation of this plan goes back some time. In 1996, the Israeli Defence Force strategically took over the highest building around Rachel’s tomb, namely the hotel of the family Nassar. Until the year 2000, the Nassar family could run the first floor restaurant, but as the previous chef of the restaurant, George Nassar, says, “who wants to come and eat in a house occupied by the army?” Today, the restaurant is more or less ruined: the windows, tables, and chairs lay smashed and broken, and on the tables you can see half empty liquor bottles. George and his mother Carmen still live in the house, but Carmen’s other children and grandchildren have been forced to move. “The soldiers do everything in order to make us move from here”, Carmen says. “They often come into the apartment in the middle of the night; they beat us or shoot in the air. Where

can we live and from what?” The Nassar family is also forced to pay the electricity and water bill, although the soldiers consume most of the water and the electricity without compensation.

A ghost town around the tomb

Around 40 shops in the Rachel tomb’s area have been forced to close. Some were situated immediately outside the wall and some were situated inside. What was once one of Bethlehem’s main streets has now been transformed to a ghost town. However, in a little, red house inside the walls, Khalil is still running a café. It is an absurd feeling to drink Arabic coffee and instead of looking out on the former pilgrimage road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, you can see only a grey concrete wall. There is only one other guest besides me and my colleague. Just as we did, he

entered through a hole in the wall. But for how much longer will this hole still be there? Palestinian workers in desperate need to put food on the table are busy finishing the construction, which means another loss of Palestinian land to Israel.

A few families are still living in their houses, which are totally constrained by the wall. One of those families is the Anastas family. Their house is

surrounded by the wall on three sides and all the windows face the cold concrete. “We are not getting any sun. We are going to die here,” cries

Claire Anastas. “It is not so bad for me, I have been living, but my children, they have just started their lives”, Claire continues crying. All the four

children have psychological problems, but the family cannot afford to give them the treatment they need. “We have lost everything”, Claire

confesses, “our business on the ground floor, our mental health, our neighbours, our garden, our future…”. “We are living in a tomb mum”, Claire’s

eight year old son said one day. “What will come after this mum?”

Visit to the tomb

From Jerusalem there are special buses to Rachel’s tomb. They enter Bethlehem through a special gate in the wall, which allows access only to the tomb area. When I try to board one of these buses, in order to see the tomb that has caused so many problems for people living around it, a passenger aggressively tells me that the bus is only for Jews. The Muslim bus driver reassures me this is not true, but advises me to enter the tomb on foot. So I decide to take the way through the hole in the wall. The commander of the Rachel tomb’s area lets me in to the synagogue which has been built over the tomb. We have a long talk about the necessity of building a wall around a holy place and therby closing it for an entire population that also consider it holy. The arguments are the same as always: security. “The Palestinians would kill us here otherwise. And besides” he continues, “the building of the wall gives the poor Palestinians work.”

By the entrance to the tomb there are two old basins for washing hands, both from the Ottoman Empire. A part of the Arabic inscription is covered with putty, sending the implicit message that the brother, who shares the same father is no longer allowed to be a part of the family. Feeling sad, I enter the women’s side and pray for reconciliation for a divided family, for sisterly and brotherly love between the children of Abraham. In my tears I meet Rachel’s tears:

“Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” (Jeremiah 31:15)