The Israel Defense Forces has repaired gravestones in the West Bank village of Kifel Haras that were smashed and defaced Thursday night by vandals, who left behind graffiti in Hebrew.

The vandalism took place when a small group of Jewish worshipers gathered in the Muslim cemetery to pray at the traditional graves of the biblical figures Joshua and Caleb, after coordinating the event with the IDF.

The visit was planned to coincide with the reading of the Torah portion Shlach Lekha, which describes how Joshua and Caleb were the only two Israelite spies who did not speak ill when they returned from reconnaissance in the Land of Israel.

	Advertisement

This is the third year in which the army has allowed Jews to pray at the cemetery, near the West Bank settlement of Ariel, after suspending the practice for several years due to the second intifada.

The event organizers condemned the vandalism but said those responsible were part of a small group that deviated from accepted norms, and that they were spurred by past vandalism to the graves of Joshua and Caleb.

Minister of Science, Culture and Sports Ghaleb Majadele (Labor) called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz Sunday to investigate the incident.

"The settlers have lost their humanity and shattered the remnants of legitimacy they had among the Israeli public," Majadale wrote to Olmert.

Representatives of Jewish settlements in the Nablus area said there was no justification for vandalizing Muslim graves. All the same, they said, Majadele and other left-wing politicians do not lead a public outcry when graves that Jewish tradition holds to be sacred, such as Joshua's grave and Joseph's Tomb in Nablus are vandalized multiple times.

Before the start of the second intifada, in 2000, the Samaria religious council and other groups organized mass visits to Joshua's grave several times a year.

Meanwhile, Nablus-area settlers and Bratslav Hasidim are planning to visit Joseph's Tomb over the weekend and early next week, and to hold prayers there.

They are trying to coordinate the visit with the IDF, which has yet to decide whether to allow it.