The AP wire story of October 8, 2000 about Joseph’s tomb contains a major factual error when it raises the question as to whether there is an absolute Jewish tradition as to whether Joseph is buried in Nablus(Shechem). The book of Exodus and all of Rabbinic literature through the centuries relate that Joseph’s coffin was personally taken by Moses out of Egypt at the time of the Exodus, and buried by Joshua when the people of Israel in Nablus when they arrived at the land of Canaan (Israel).

The AP graph to be corrected is:

“The tomb’s holiness is disputed, as tradition holds that the biblical patriarch Joseph was actually buried in Egypt; the connection of the site to Joseph is a relatively recent local Arab tradition also observed by some Jews”

The AP phraseoology, if it is not corrected, would downplay the newsworthiness of a Jewish holy site that has been burned to a crisp by the forces loyal to Yassir Arafat. This brings to mind the actions of Arab forces in Jerusalem who burned every Jewish holy site in East Jerusalem in 1948 – that included 57 synagogues, after which they went on to desecrate the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. All this with the blessing of Arafat’s cousin, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin El Husseini.

the writer is a media research analyst and the bureau chief of the Israel Resource News Agency

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David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.