JERUSALEM (JTA) — A visit to Joseph Tomb’s by family members of a man killed at the West Bank site by Palestinian police ended with riots.
A group of settler youths arrived at the site, which is believed to be the burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph and his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, on an unauthorized visit early Tuesday morning. Many reportedly refused to leave and barricaded themselves at the site, which then became a target for rock-throwing Palestinian youths.
Earlier, members of the family of Ben Yosef Livnat, who was killed April 24 during an unauthorized visit to the tomb, joined hundreds of Jewish worshipers on an authorized visit to the Nablus site. Relatives of the Fogel family, who were killed in their beds in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Itamar, also visited the site, which is holy to Jews.
Livnat’s widow, parents and siblings were permitted to visit the site alone, marking the end of the shiva period for the 25-year-old father of five, Ynet reported. Members of the Fogel family reportedly visited the tomb because they had planned to do so with the slain father of the family, Udi.
Israeli police arrested more than dozen youths who made the unauthorized visit to the tomb.
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