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Jerusalem's Tomb of the Kings: Did the French Hijack a Jewish Heritage Site?

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Dr. Richard Rossin and Amb. Freddy Eytan - France owns four sites of religious significance in Jerusalem. One is the Tomb of the Kings, containing the tomb, hewn into the rock, of Queen Helena, originally from Kurdistan, who converted to Judaism and moved to Jerusalem around 30 CE. Also buried there are first century figures, Nicodemus Ben Gurion, a wealthy philanthropist, and his friend Kalba Savua, the rich father-in-law of Rabbi Akiva. The site is located about 800 meters north of Jerusalem's Old City walls. Bertha Pereire, a wealthy Jewish philanthropist, purchased the area of the tomb for 30,000 francs. In 1874, she gave her acquisition to the Jewish Consistoire Central de France, writing, "I have no other objective than the conservation of this ancient and respected monument....It is a relic of my ancestors that I want to preserve from any further desecration." After her death and that of her two sons, Bertha's cousin, Henry Pereire, curiously gave the Tomb of the Kings to France. But he was not Bertha's heir and had no right to give away such property without first offering it to the Consistoire as its legitimate owner. Nevertheless, the site was directly handed over to the French consul in Jerusalem in 1886. In 1997, French Consul Stanislas de Laboulaye allowed a Palestinian cultural society, Yabous, to hold a music festival there. In recent years, the Consul repeatedly permitted Yabous to use the site. In effect, the French hijacked a Jewish heritage site. The president of the Consistoire Central Israelite de France has questioned why a site under French sovereignty is forbidden to Jews and has argued that a concert performance is inappropriate for a holy site. The site, closed in 2010, was reopened on June 27, 2019, but with limited, reserved, and paid admission. The official French announcement reopening the Tomb was translated into Arabic, but not into Hebrew. It stated that the "Tomb of the Sultans" will be opened. Yet the tomb predates the nomination of the first Arab sultan by 11 centuries. Dr. Richard Rossin, an orthopedic surgeon, writer and editorialist, served as General Secretary of Doctors Without Borders. Amb. Freddy Eytan is a former Foreign Ministry senior advisor who served in Israel's embassies in Paris and Brussels and was Israel's first Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.
2019-12-04 00:00:00
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