Rachel's Tomb September 8, 1932
UNESCO re-labeled as an Islamic mosque the tomb of Rachel, Israel's other matriarch, and demanded that Israel remove the site from its National Heritage list.
The Tomb of Rachel, Judaism's third holiest site, has been the scene of prayer and pilgrimage for more than three thousand years, and has an especially meaningful connection to and for Jewish women. Rachel, the matriarch who died in childbirth and was buried at that spot on the road to Hebron, has been a comfort and hope to Jews since biblical days. "Thus says the Lord, 'Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded...and they shall return from the enemy's land and there is hope for the future'... 'Your children shall return to their own country." Jeremiah 31:16-17. The tomb has since appeared in thousands of drawings, photographs, stamps, and works of art and has been depicted on the covers of Jewish holy books.
Centuries before Islam was founded, Jewish and Christian pilgrims visited Rachel's burial place and made note of it in their writings. Until 2000, the Palestinians also recognized the site as Rachel's Tomb. It was called "Rachel's Tomb" in Al-mawsu'ah al-filastiniyah, the Palestinian encyclopedia published after 1996 and in Palestine, the Holy Land, a Palestinian publication, with an introduction by Yasser Arafat. However, during the second intifada, Al-Hayat al-Jadida, a Palestinian daily, announced a new-found historical connection to Rachel's Tomb, declaring that is was "originally a Muslim mosque."
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