Unfortunately, the national memory is a short one, lacking the ability or perhaps the desire to call government leaders on the carpet for constantly failing to fulfill promises.
 
When the late Yitzchak Rabin announced Israel would be signing the Oslo Agreement, which took place on the White House lawn on Sept. 13, 1993, the people were assured that the agreement guaranteed safe access to “religious sites”, including Kever Yosef in Shechem, Kever Rachel, and the Shalom Al Yisrael Shul in Yericho to name a few.
 
The latest known victim of this fantasy was an Israeli who dared to enter PA (Palestinian Authority)-occupied Yericho on Tuesday night. He was taken into custody by PA forces, turned over to IDF liaison office officials, and he will most likely face charges for violating the military ban prohibiting Israelis from entering into PA autonomous areas – the government’s splendid example of “dual existence” Oslo style.
 
Since the Oslo Agreement, Kever Yosef was set ablaze numerous times, and one needs to coordinate with the IDF and travel in bulletproof vehicles to visit the holy site. That of course followed the decision of then-leader Ehud Barak, who abandoned the kever, but only after waiting hours, prohibiting a rescue team from reaching border police who were under siege, fearing a diplomatic incident, preferring to permit the border policeman to bleed to death, which he did.
 
Regarding Kever Rachel in PA-occupied Bet Lechem, arrangements are not as complicated but the holy site is now hidden behind bomb and bulletproof walls to ensure one can survive such a visit.
 
Yericho once house the oldest standing shul in the world, the Shalom Al Yisrael shul, but it too was set ablaze by Israel’s neighbors, who yearn to live at our side in peace and dual-existence. While the shul was burning, the PA did not permit firefighters to respond until it was too late.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)