JERUSALEM – Palestinians yesterday tried to burn down Joseph’s Tomb – Judaism’s third holiest site – according to Palestinian security officials speaking to WND.It marks the second time the Palestinians attempted to burn down the tomb, located near Nablus, the biblical city of Shechem.

Joseph’s Tomb is the believed burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph, the son of Jacob who was sold by his brothers into slavery and later became viceroy of Egypt.

Palestinian security officials in Nablus said yesterday they were called to the tomb to find 16 burning tires inside the sacred structure.

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In 1963, Yad Vashem embarked upon a worldwide project to grant the title of Righteous Among the Nations to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.  To this end, Yad Vashem set up a public committee headed by a retired Supreme Court justice, which is responsible for granting the title.  This project is the only one of its kind in the world that honors, using set criteria, the actions of those individuals who rescued Jews during the war.  The Righteous program and the trees planted on the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations have received world coverage, and the concept of Righteous Among the Nations coined in the Yad Vashem Law has become a universal concept and an important symbol.  As of January 2007, 21,758 people have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. In addition, Yad Vashem has been developing a comprehensive encyclopedia – The Lexicon of the Righteous Among the Nations – that will eventually include the stories of all the Righteous Among the Nations.  The Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, in which marble plaques have been engraved with the names of the rescuers according to country, was inaugurated in 1996.  Ceremonies in which the title of Righteous Among the Nations is granted are held in the Garden.

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Worshipers at the 100-year-old Great Synagogue in Petah Tikva saw the graffiti outside the building when they arrived at 4:30 a.m. Thursday to open it for morning prayers. A worse shock, however, awaited them when they opened the historic building’s doors. Swastikas and satanic graffiti were scrawled throughout the interior, with particular attention devoted to the ark, where Nazi-themed graffiti were drawn on the doors and on the Torah scrolls, which had been thrown to the floor.

“Hitler” had been written across the synagogue’s doors, every Jewish symbol was blotted out with spray paint, and “Rammstein” – the name of a German black metal band frequently associated with neo-Nazi punk youth – was written on the floor alongside a satanic symbol. Hours after the attack, Petah Tikva police refrained from ascribing the attack to local neo-Nazis. Petah Tikva police chief Lt. Cmdr. Motti Feldman said that police were “checking all the possible angles of the case.” He noted that, a few months earlier, a smaller synagogue in the city had also been vandalized. Feldman said that police investigators were not yet certain whether the two incidents were connected but said that police were, in any case, investigating the vandalism as a criminal incident. It would not be the first such occurrence in Petah Tikva. In 2004, a series of violent attacks against local haredim during Sukkot led to the arrest of three 16-year-olds, who were indicted. Since then, Feldman said, there had been no violent anti-Semitic or anti-haredi attacks.