‘Joshua’s altar site may be outside borders’
Concerns have been raised by settler leader Yossi Dagan that the archaeological site where the Biblical figure of Joshua is supposed to have erected an altar could end up being outside Israel’s borders under the Trump peace plan.
Efforts are currently underway to map out the precise areas in the West Bank which the current US administration is allowing Israel to annex, but Dagan, who opposes the aspects of the Trump plan granting the Palestinians a sovereign state, said that “sources” of told him that Joshua’s altar may be on the Palestinian side of the border.
The site is located at the foot of Mount Ebal close to the Palestinian city of Nablus and is deep inside the West Bank.
“The altar of Joshua Bin Nun is one of the most important archaeological findings in the State of Israel,” said Dagan.
“The basis of our rightful claim to the land is places like Mount Ebal, Mount Gerizim, Shiloh and the Cave of the Patriarchs. The altar of Joshua is one of the only testimonies to the entry of the Jewish people into the land, and the State of Israel cannot abandon it and certainly not give it over to the hands of our enemies,” he added.
One source with knowledge of the mapping efforts said that including the site had not been part of the Trump plan, but that these issues need to be worked out in the finer details.
A spokesman for MK and minister Tzipi Hotovely said in response to whether or not the site could end up outside Israel that the mapping committee was “still working on the maps.”
Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.