On October 18, lawyer Irakli Zakareishvili published a post, claiming that Jews attacked, desecrated, burned, and blew up the tomb of the Holy Apostle Jacob. The post is accompanied by a video showing the damage to the building.
The claim that the Jews desecrated the grave shown in the video is false. In fact, there was an attempt to damage it on October 18, 2023, by the Palestinian population, but they were stopped by members of the Palestinian security forces and were not allowed to enter the territory.
The author of the post claims that the tomb of the Apostle Jacob was damaged, although the building shown in the video is the tomb of Joseph (Old Testament), which is confirmed by the fact that the Arabic text included in the post refers to the latter, and in addition, the author of the post himself attaches photos in the comments with the description: “Tomb of the Apostle Joseph.” Notably, the building is located in the city of Nablus controlled by the Palestinian side.
On October 18, the Jerusalem Post and a number of Arabic-language online media, including Al Jazeera, reported that Palestinian citizens had organized a march in the direction of “Joseph’s Tomb”, but were stopped by Palestinian army security forces and prevented from entering the building; Notably, the claims about its alleged damage are false.
It should be noted that “Joseph’s Tomb” has been damaged by the Palestinians a number of times in the past. One of the strongest attacks on the building occurred on October 16, 2015, when Palestinians set fire to the area and significantly damaged the Jewish holy site. However, during the following months, it was reconstructed by the Israeli side.
A serious act of vandalism was also recorded in 2022, when Palestinians significantly damaged both part of the building and the tombstone inside, and again set fire to the site.
In addition to targeted attacks, in the vicinity of “Joseph’s Tomb” there have been many confrontations between Israel and the Palestinian side, mostly when settled Jews, with the help of the army, tried to enter the territory to perform religious rituals (1, 2).
About the Source:
Lawyer Irakli Zakareishvili often publishes posts with anti-Western, anti-Ukrainian, and anti-opposition content. Since the emergence of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, 2023, the user has been spreading disinformation regularly. False information spread by Zakareishvili has been debunked by “Myth Detector” many times in the past.
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