(JNS) Fifteen mayors of Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria have signed on to an initiative calling for a permanent Jewish presence at Joseph’s Tomb in the Samaria city of Nablus (Shechem), the Israeli news site Ynet reported on Monday.

The initiative—led by Rabbi David Ben-Natan, whose son Sgt. Shuvael Ben-Natan was killed in Southern Lebanon last year, has also received support from Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan and Zvi Sukkot, a former lawmaker for the Religious Zionism Party.

The local leaders are demanding that Jerusalem restore Jewish rule over Joseph’s Tomb, return the Od Yosef Chai Yeshivah to its initial location in the tomb’s compound and allow the general public to visit and pray.

“We join the call of the rabbis to underscore the demand that the city of Shechem and Joseph’s Tomb have been the inheritance of the Jewish people since time immemorial,” the Judea and Samaria leaders said.

“This is where The Holy One, blessed be He, promised Abraham our father, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ This is where Jacob, our forefather, bought a plot in the field and built an altar to God. This is where Joshua the son of Nun fulfilled the blessing and the curse, and the people of Israel became responsible for each other, and this is where
Israel Ganz, who heads the Binyamin Regional Council and the Yesha Council umbrella group, said: “The return of the yeshivah to Joseph’s Tomb is not only a religious matter, but a step of historical justice.

“Joseph’s Tomb is a symbol of the Jewish people’s deep connection to the Land of Israel, particularly Shechem—a city central to our national heritage,” Ganz said. “This is a moral and national imperative: to return to our holy places and ensure the basic right of every Jew to pray there.”

Joseph’s Tomb has frequently been the target of Arab vandals. When the Israeli government abandoned the site days after a deadly attack there in 2000, it elicited a promise from the Palestinians that the site would be protected after security forces left. It was destroyed shortly afterward.

After 2022, security conditions in Judea and Samaria deteriorated to the point that Israeli forces again began operating in Nablus. At first, small groups of Jewish worshippers made risky attempts to pray at the tomb, unauthorized and without military escort. Larger groups now regularly enter at night, generally accompanied by a heavy military presence.