{"id":2694,"date":"2023-09-24T11:06:40","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T08:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maarav.org.il\/english\/?p=2694"},"modified":"2024-12-10T20:43:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T17:43:06","slug":"rachels-tomb-from-image-to-reality-and-back-hava-schwartz-and-gaston-zvi-ickowicz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maarav.org.il\/english\/2023\/09\/24\/rachels-tomb-from-image-to-reality-and-back-hava-schwartz-and-gaston-zvi-ickowicz\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel\u2019s Tomb: From Image to Reality and Back \/ Hava Schwartz and Gaston Zvi Ickowicz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A conversation between photographer, artist, and lecturer Gaston Zvi Ickowicz, and Hava Schwartz, a tour guide who teaches and researches the history of visual art and culture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From: Album 49: In Gratitude and in Memory of the Upper Austrian Pilgrims to the Holy Land. Jacob Warman Archive, National Library.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rachel\u2019s Tomb, a building of stone with a dome, stands solitary in the hilly landscape. On a hill in the background is the small city of Bethlehem. A man standing on the road adjacent to the building casts a short, bent shadow onto the wall. On the right, in the forefront of the photograph, is an olive tree planted in stone-strewn soil, its branches extending protectively over the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This photograph made its first appearance in a souvenir album of photographed scenes from the Holy Land that was published in 1900 as a memento for a group of Austrian pilgrims, after being colored by Swiss artists at Photochrome Zurich. Under the photograph is the caption in German, \u201cRachel\u2019s Tomb of Bethlehem\u201d; on the next page, there was a photograph of the cave where Jesus was born, in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In photographs from the nineteenth century and turn of the twentieth century, the image of Rachel\u2019s Tomb is frozen in time as a timeless holy site. However, this image also attests to changes in place and time in Ottoman Palestine at the turn of the century: it depicts the building identified as Rachel\u2019s Tomb after it was renovated in 1841 by Moses Montefiore, with the Turkish authorities\u2019 approval, after visiting the site with his wife Judith when they traveled to Hebron in 1838. Besides marking Rachel\u2019s burial place, the additional antechamber built during the renovation, with its mihrab<\/em> facing Mecca, served for Muslim prayer (and for purifying the dead before burial in the nearby cemetery),[2]<\/a> and for the many Jews who visited Rachel\u2019s Tomb. It was also a pilgrimage site, particularly for women for whom Rachel was a figure they could identify with, pray to for fertility, and from whom they could draw comfort.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judith Montefiore\u2019s tomb, and later Moses Montefiore\u2019s, in Ramsgate, England, is replica of Rachel\u2019s Tomb. Memories of and identification with Rachel led to the creation of a replica of her tomb, as they fixed the image created at a particular moment in time, making it timeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the building of the tomb has changed beyond recognition. Today, the tomb is part of a fortified enclosure. After the annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967, the tomb, which blended into Bethlehem\u2019s urban space, was not included in the city\u2019s municipal jurisdiction; but with the erection of the Separation Wall during the Second Intifada, the tomb was included on the Jerusalem side. Near Rachel\u2019s Checkpoint (Checkpoint 300), the main crossing point between southern West Bank and Jerusalem, is the access road to the tomb, winding between two high concrete walls, on the other side of which lies Bethlehem. The grave marker, which can be reached through separate entrances to the women\u2019s and men\u2019s sections on either side of the tomb and the partition, is now concealed behind the wall. Adjacent to it, a temporary structure serves as a beth midrash<\/em> (Torah study hall), and behind it is the Bnei Rachel yeshiva and settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> In September 2022, you showed an exhibition called \u201cAn Entirely Different Map of the Country\u201d at Hamidrasha Gallery in Tel Aviv. It engaged with the photographed landscapes of politically loaded places, like the Rachel\u2019s Tomb enclosure, alongside enlargements of landscape photographs from a series of postage stamps\/labels from the Palestinian philatelic history, or printed in Lebanon, and refer to Palestine in the early 1970s. One of the photographs you showed there, and which drew my interest, was of an improvised building and the Israeli flag, a yard in front of it covered with synthetic grass and garden ornaments, and a section of the Separation Wall in the background. Like the photographs on the stamps, this place appeared without any identifying marks, even though it\u2019s situated right behind a very familiar site: Rachel\u2019s Tomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rachel’s Tomb, (Beth Lehem), 2022, Photograph: Gaston Zvi Itzkovitz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> You\u2019ve been wandering around Rachel\u2019s Tomb a lot in the past three years; what drew you there? And what have you seen that intrigues you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> I went there by chance. By chance, in the sense that many of the places I go to in order to photograph them, or look at them, in some way, I plan in advance to go there. In this particular case, I went to the nearby Checkpoint 300, and didn\u2019t remember that this is where Rachel\u2019s Tomb is located. I walked around the checkpoint, and something intuitive drew me to go back to the car and go into the enclave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> And then you went back again and again. What kept drawing you back?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston: <\/strong>I ask myself whether I go there because of what I see, or because of what I don\u2019t see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it actually that this place is so restricted in view, or for view, in contrast with its purpose as a historical and religious site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a person engaged in photography \u2013 and photography engages with gaze and view \u2013 I\u2019m busy with the question not only of what I see, but also what I don\u2019t see in this place. Going back to the first time I went to Rachel\u2019s Tomb, to the first time I drove between two walls that form a kind of sleeve for the road leading to the tomb enclosure, and I parked the car. It\u2019s important to note this matter of the car because you can\u2019t get through the entry barrier to the sleeve on foot. Only in a car or bus. I tried several times to enter on foot, and you can\u2019t. I went towards the entrance to the tomb itself, and quite naturally I lingered there, because that\u2019s where a lot of people congregate, and there\u2019s a dynamic there that intrigued me. Opposite the building of the tomb there\u2019s the wall, and at the end of it I suddenly noticed a basketball hoop attached to the wall, and I couldn\u2019t understand what it was doing there. I saw it as a sign that something happens there. After I went into the tomb building and looked around a bit, I walked back in the direction of the hoop (which had meanwhile been removed, but you could still see the two holes made by the screws in the wall). I came to an enclosure where Rachel\u2019s Tomb Yeshiva is situated, and right opposite the hoop is the settlement. That is, a few caravans, which to all intents and purposes is a settlement as far as I\u2019m concerned, and families live in them. I\u2019m not na\u00efve, of course, and I know the tomb is located in a highly complex and political space, but I didn\u2019t expect to come face to face with this settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rachel’s Tomb, (Beth Lehem), 2022, Photography by Gaston Zvi Itzkovitz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> Which is actually located deep inside the enclosure, behind the tomb building, at the foot of the wall, which is perhaps the most significant thing there. The settlement, and despite being familiar with the Rachel\u2019s Tomb enclosure, I\u2019d never really known it until we went there together. It\u2019s actually a cluster of buildings surrounded by the Separation Wall, located at the foot of the wall, and beyond it you can see \u2013 if you look \u2013 the buildings of Bethlehem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston: <\/strong>The settlement adjoins Bethlehem. The only thing separating these buildings, or these caravans, from the buildings in Bethlehem, is the wall. On the other side of the wall there\u2019s a Muslim cemetery. You realize you\u2019re right next to Bethlehem because when you\u2019re in the settlement you constantly hear the everyday sounds of a city, of Bethlehem. Sometimes you can even hear people talking, voices, things like that. Something interesting happened to me recently that demonstrates how close it is. I went up to one of the roofs to take pictures, the roof of the yeshiva. A funeral was just starting in the cemetery, and in the Rachel\u2019s Tomb enclosure, where the settlement is located, there was a matzo baking event\/activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the right there\u2019s a funeral, and on the left they\u2019re baking matzos. It might sound somewhat romantic, but it just shows how close life it. Life goes on, everyone\u2019s doing their own thing. But of course, this huge wall also demonstrates the gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> Yes. I think about that settlement, and I think actually the settlement lies beyond what\u2019s been perceived for hundreds of years as an important ritual hub, which is the tomb itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> That\u2019s the word I was looking for earlier \u2013 ritual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> The tomb itself isn\u2019t visible either: anyone traveling to Rachel\u2019s Tomb passes next to a system of fences, and near the main checkpoint between Jerusalem and southern West Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within this system of fences and cameras, the building of Rachel\u2019s Tomb isn\u2019t visible. When we were there together, I went into the tomb\u2019s women\u2019s section. Like many grave markers in Israel, there were women praying and reading verses from the Book of Psalms, getting as close as they could to the tomb. They are continuing a tradition of prayer at women\u2019s grave markers from a belief that the buried woman\u2019s presence, and close intimate proximity to her, possess healing powers.[4]<\/a> When I entered the prayer area around the tomb, one of the things that caught my attention was that there\u2019s a cover over the tomb bearing the historical image of Rachel\u2019s Tomb, like the photographs from the Ottoman period we mentioned earlier. Rachel\u2019s Tomb became a major site in Zionist culture from its very beginnings as a biblical site embodying the historical connection with the Land of Israel. The image of Rachel\u2019s Tomb appears in countless Zionist visual art items and objects, like postcards, illustrations for children, and even cigarette packets.[5]<\/a> It also appears as a central image in the artworks of \u201cOld Bezalel\u201d<\/a>, frequently together with other holy sites in the Land of Israel, or adorned with the figures of Jacob and Rachel. This image combines buildings and nature, in which the biblical event of Jacob burying Rachel on the road to Ephrata can be imagined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dovek Ltd., from the collection of Gaston Zvi Itzkovitz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> How and where does this image appear at Rachel\u2019s Tomb?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> It\u2019s a recurring image, not only on the cover of the tomb itself, but also in the paintings hanging on the wall next to \u201cRachel\u2019s Prayer\u201d. The tomb stands as part of the partition, so it can be approached both from the men\u2019s and women\u2019s sections. This image, of the tomb building next to a tree, is also part of the logo of the yeshiva at the site, where it appears against the background of an open Torah scroll, and under it the inscription, \u201cThe children shall return to their own borders\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Daughter of Rachel Yeshiva, 2022, Photograph by Chava Shwratz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This image has undergone such an interesting transformation, from a religious Christian image to an image associated with the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel in Zionist contexts. And now it\u2019s once more becoming an image whose religious meaning is intertwining with national meaning \u2013 \u201cThe children shall return to their own borders\u201d and the Torah scroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> It\u2019s actually quite natural for this image to appear at Rachel\u2019s Tomb, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> Yes and no. Because this image, which ostensibly depicts the site where it\u2019s located, stands in stark contrast to what you actually see there. There\u2019s an inconceivable disparity between what you see when you enter the tomb enclosure, and the image itself, which is so very idyllic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> I think what you\u2019re saying is something that generally characterizes what you call religious fantasies. The settlers live there, closed in by a nine-meter wall, a huge gray wall that closes them off in every direction \u2013 and on the other hand, this wall isn\u2019t something that bothers them. They cling to fantasy, imagination, history, they cling to this historical image and actually live in a different reality because they don\u2019t relate to the realistic image, but to their desired, imagined, historical image. I think I encountered the very same thing in my photographic wanderings around numerous Jewish settlements where the inhabitants live in a very harsh place, visually speaking, yet they somehow manage to ignore it. I sometimes ask myself, and I\u2019ve also asked settlers at Rachel\u2019s Tomb, how they can give up the aesthetic aspect, or some kind of peace for the eyes? When I show this to them, they shift into a very productive conversation. That is, as far as they\u2019re concerned, they\u2019re like soldiers there, they\u2019re on the front line. They have a function. Once I \u201cposition\u201d them in the reality they constantly distance themselves from, they start talking about the important task of building this place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava: <\/strong>When you say, \u201cgive up the aesthetic aspect\u201d, after saying they\u2019re actually clinging to the historical, the utopian, it seems that giving up the aesthetic aspect is to some extent giving up the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re supposedly here, in the here and now, and actually we\u2019re constantly turning our gaze backward and forward. The image of Rachel\u2019s Tomb is a historical image but at the same time also a utopic image because that\u2019s the history we return to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> But the teachers at \u201cOld Bezalel\u201d described a utopic reality, didn\u2019t they? How are the new images different from those from Bezalel, where there was also a utopic reality?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava: <\/strong>Yes, there was something utopic in the depictions of Rachel\u2019s Tomb at \u201cOld Bezalel\u201d, but it was a Zionist utopia; and while it was full of religious elements, it was embodied in the picture of the idyllic landscape itself: the utopia is the return to the Land of the Bible. The image of Rachel\u2019s Tomb in the present appears with additional elements, like the logo of the yeshiva there, wrapped in a Torah scroll, and the verse \u201cThe children shall return to their own borders\u201d. In other words, we\u2019re returning to the site and coming full historical circle by divine will. The leaflets handed out at the site carry the same image of the tomb building next to a tree, with the addition of birds and a brilliant light erupting from the sky above. This is a common iconography of redemption images in diverse religious contexts around the world. In contrast with the images of \u201cOld Bezalel\u201d, the drama isn\u2019t only on the earth, but in the heavens as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prayer Card at Rachel’s Tomb (appears on the other side of the image).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This image is possibly a kind of answer to the question you asked: how can you, and why do you, choose to live under a concrete wall? But the gaze isn\u2019t turned in that direction, the gaze is directed towards the past, which is projected onto the imagined future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And living there is a kind of step towards that vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> Yes. Did you know that on the wall, in the settlement enclosure, they recently hung some posters with photographs depicting the settlement enclosure, and the stages of its development. The final stage is by 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these images, too, I\u2019m constantly impressed by this clinging to the image, to what was and what will be, rather than to the reality of the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> And in the process they skip over the present. Skipping over the present is not only ignoring the conditions I\u2019m currently living in, it\u2019s also skipping over the cost of what I\u2019ve chosen to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few meters away there\u2019s a checkpoint where people crowd together every morning, mainly Palestinian laborers from the West Bank going to work in Jerusalem.[6]<\/a> The proximity between Rachel\u2019s Tomb and the reality of the checkpoint, and between the utopia in the image of the settlement and the dystopia of the checkpoint, stand in stark contrast. On the one hand, the gaze towards utopia, which the image of Rachel\u2019s Tomb expresses, is perhaps one of the means that enable the Israelis there to not see the present: not of the Palestinians at the checkpoint, and not of those taking refuge in the shadow of this image, of the settlers themselves who live in caravans at the foot of the wall. On the other hand, we\u2019ve both seen the attempts to domesticate the place. For instance, the children in the settlement drew grass and flowers at the foot of the wall, what one of the inhabitants described as a nice activity for the children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rachel’s Tomb, (Beth Lehem), 2022, Photograph: Gaston Zvi Itzkovitz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s synthetic grass in the settlement, a playground, and some attempts at gardening outside the homes. There\u2019s an attempt in this little corner to create something homelike, and perhaps resists just a little the blatant lack of aesthetics of the wall surrounding it. Ultimately, people can\u2019t really give up the present and a sense of home, not just the Third Temple of the prophesy, but also the home you come back to every day and where you raise your children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> You can see the settlement enclosure at Rachel\u2019s Tomb as part of a routine system, where you take a historically or religiously charged place, and use it to expand boundaries, territory, in order to enter a new place \u2013 in this case, Bethlehem. When you\u2019re there, you get the impression that there\u2019s a kind of super-architect who thinks about these things \u2013 we\u2019re here, we\u2019re living here, under these conditions, and we\u2019re sacrificing our lives because the very legitimacy for us to be there for religious reasons is what will also enable us to grow and expand and go and live in Bethlehem. If I go back to the first question, what draws me so strongly to this place, it\u2019s that when I go there, I constantly witness encounters between the historical and the future. I recognize the ambition, how they\u2019d like this place to grow and develop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> In other words, although this place has its peculiarities, there\u2019s actually a pattern here. It\u2019s not just the place, it\u2019s a pattern we can see in the City of David for instance, which is also in a process of expanding beyond the archeological site to its surroundings in Silwan. Beyond all the legal issues and the mechanisms that will facilitate it, part of it is also the creation of an image that embodies a picture of the past and the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be seen very clearly in the City of David: not only the place, but the image of the place as it was in the days of David and Solomon, or as those who are creating it would like it to look. So, for example, the tourist maps of the site are a mix of existing and imagined topography. Under the auspices of this image, it\u2019s possible to expand, it conveys the message that what\u2019s here right now is the current reality, but in its essence it\u2019s different, in its past it\u2019s different, and that\u2019s the appropriate picture of the place, and what we\u2019re aspiring to. The image creates a kind of mental picture of what we\u2019d like to do, where we\u2019d like to go. But what\u2019s very interesting in the dynamics of Rachel\u2019s Tomb and other sites we\u2019ve mentioned is that the image doesn\u2019t only say, \u201cLet\u2019s leave the present for a moment and see how it should be here\u201d, but it gazes back at us in the form of plans for the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we see that synthetic grass and the flowers drawn on the wall, it\u2019s an attempt, perhaps, to close the gap between the brutal reality and the utopian image. As in the City of David, not only has the image grown, but the idyllic nature of the site is also growing in light of the image: olive trees are being planted, and music, supposedly of David\u2019s lyre, is played. In fact, the image not only creates an alternative picture of reality, but also dictates what should be. And what should be there is a correction of the supposedly defective present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what\u2019s defective at Rachel\u2019s Tomb is that there\u2019s a wall there. Palestinian Bethlehem is also a kind of defect, according to this view, that needs to be corrected. And this correcting will be achieved by the actions we perform here in the present, which will gradually create a Jewish Israeli presence in Bethlehem, at the expense of Palestinian presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within this pattern, the visual image and the expansion that\u2019s developed in its light, comes at the expense of the present, and the everyday life of the people themselves becomes entirely secondary to the big picture, \u201cThe Big Story\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> I wonder if on the other side of the wall, the Bethlehem side, too, gaps can be observed between reality and imagination, fantasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> Beyond the wall, on the Bethlehem side, about half a kilometer east of Rachel\u2019s Tomb, you can see another attempt to rise above reality in the form of \u201cOur Lady of the Wall\u201d near Emmanuel Monastery. It\u2019s a mural of an icon of the Virgin Mary, painted in 2010 by British iconographer Ian Knowles who has an icon workshop in Bethlehem, which was commissioned by local nuns and Christians. Mary is depicted in her traditional image as the Mother of God, with halo and cloak, and the fields of Bethlehem in the background. Local devotees and a few pilgrims \u2013 due to fears of coming too close to a place that\u2019s considered dangerous \u2013 come and sing psalms devoted to the Virgin Mary, rosaries in hand.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image of Rachel on one side of the wall, a kind of mother that people come to pray to, and of Mary on the other side, also as a kind of mother that people come to pray to, looks out at the residents of Bethlehem beyond the wall. Like the images of Rachel\u2019s Tomb on the other side, here, too, the gilded image, with graffiti on either side of it, stands in extreme contrast to the wall and fences and cameras and all the other signs of the occupation surrounding it; in the shadow of an array of control mechanisms, the icon constitutes a means to claim ownership of and belonging to the place.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> That\u2019s right. And on the other hand, the image of Rachel is absent Rachel. There\u2019s no human depiction of Rachel on the Jerusalem side of the wall, but rather an image of a tomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> Exactly. There\u2019s possibly a mental image of her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston: <\/strong>And another difference is the different power relations. Israel built the wall as a fait accompli, and it has a huge impact on the lives of the Palestinians, and consequently the meaning of the image is different. Miriam appears here as a Palestinian symbol of survival, she\u2019s a kind of martyr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> The icon is also a kind of gesture by a Western artist who came to live in Bethlehem, and the icon of Miriam on the wall with her face to the Palestinians is a kind of message of hope and compassion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Israeli side, a group of settlers who are working hand-in-hand with the Israeli authorities that enable their life there, and protect them, and this image is not an image of helplessness; on the contrary, it\u2019s an image of strength and power. An image that says: we\u2019re shaping reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think we should also distinguish between the people of the yeshiva and the worshipers at Rachel\u2019s Tomb. Maybe how the way to get there has been engineered is also an act of power. But I think the women who come to pray at Rachel\u2019s Tomb have similar sentiments, the presence of Rachel is the presence of a protective mother who\u2019s attentive to the hardships in the lives of the praying women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> Exactly, what you\u2019re saying shows the delicate seepage from arriving at the site for ritual purposes, to arriving at a political place, both at the icon and at Rachel\u2019s Tomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The devotee comes because she wants her prayers to be heard, but when she gets there \u2013 not her as a human being, as an individual in this world \u2013 the entire \u201cset\u201d, even the visual, leads us to the political place. I came here for the icon, but there\u2019s something beyond the icon, and that takes me to reality again, to the incredibly dramatic connection such places between religious reality and political reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think it follows immediately; I think it\u2019s simultaneous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> Concurrent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> In this regard, there\u2019s a dynamic here that\u2019s characteristic of pilgrimages that have always been a political act as well: from \u201cbelow\u201d \u2013 when movement and prayer at Rachel\u2019s Tomb or the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem are also expressions of a sense of belonging or even appropriation \u2013 and also from \u201cabove\u201d,[9]<\/a> by those who have a vested interest in pilgrimages, in this movement. The same applies to the tourists who come to the site ostensibly because this particular place interests them, but it\u2019s clear that there are also those who want to develop this place for economic or political reasons. That\u2019s why the distinctions nowadays between tourism and pilgrimage are very blurred, and are often considered one category. Here, too, the worshipers, whether willingly or unwillingly, are part of a movement that has immense political significance of normalizing the site located between walls and fences and security guards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequently, expanding Jewish prayer at the site, and the busses and events and branding of the site, are all part of the attempt to assimilate the site, which is outside Jerusalem\u2019s municipal jurisdiction \u2013 in West Bank territory, and in effect in Bethlehem \u2013 as an inseparable part of Israel. This is also appropriation of the site exclusively to Judaism. In this regards it resembles additional holy sites, like the Cave of the Patriarchs, and King David\u2019s Tomb on Mount Zion, where there\u2019s been a migration of traditions over the years; at times they functioned as shared spaces, and are now being appropriated as exclusively Jewish-Israeli sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston<\/strong>: But there\u2019s also a history of Christian and Muslim rituals, and this image also appears on Palestinian stamps as a national Palestinian symbol.[10]<\/a> There\u2019s a series of stamps featuring images of holy sites, such as Dome of the Rock, Tower of David, and Rachel\u2019s Tomb. Following the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority established a postal authority and started printing stamps. One of the interesting series from that period is based on a series from the British Mandate period. The Palestinians took the image of the original stamp bearing Rachel\u2019s Tomb, for instance, and printed it on a new, Palestinian stamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From right to left: Rachel’s Tomb on a Palestinian and a British stamp, private collection of Gaston Zvi Itzkovitz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> In this respect, there\u2019s a history here of attempts at national appropriation of what had at times served as a shared space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston<\/strong>: What you\u2019re saying takes me back to the beginning of our conversation, when I said, what don\u2019t you see there? You don\u2019t see the historical building, the tomb itself, the dome that\u2019s so strongly identified with the historical building, you don\u2019t see any population other than a Jewish population, and again this separation. Compared to Hebron, the situation is more \u201cadvanced\u201d, the Jewish settlement has already been established. On the other hand, Cave of the Patriarchs is a place that serves Muslims and Jews, and at Rachel\u2019s Tomb the place only serves Jews. So, in some way, Hebron is a model for settlement at Rachel\u2019s Tomb, and Rachel\u2019s Tomb itself\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> \u2026is a model for Cave of the Patriarchs and the Jewish community in Hebron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> In terms of vision they\u2019ve already progressed, they\u2019ve managed to disconnect it from other religions by means of the wall, in fact they\u2019ve already achieved full appropriation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> Yes. So actually, Rachel\u2019s Tomb is drawing a picture of the future for us, not only in its utopic meaning, but also in the direction in which these political moves are leading. And it\u2019s all being done with strong means and from several directions: military, security, settlement, religious, and visual. Multiple channels executing the vision of Greater Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> I\u2019m returning to the place of the photograph and the gaze. In fact, it\u2019s not just the place of the photograph from which I gaze at the site more broadly, but also the connection between gaze and a place of ritual, a religious place; a place of prayer is a place that\u2019s supposed to be without borders, a symbol of the infinite. On the other hand, as soon as you get to the enclosure, even before you get there, when you pass through the guard post and turn right at the end of Hebron Road, you immediately feel restricted. In other words, you\u2019re not in the infinite. This affects me very strongly, the disparity between the spiritual place that\u2019s meant to allow you a kind of infiniteness, and the fact that you\u2019re in a place with clear and harsh boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reminds me that one day, about three years ago, I was traveling on Hebron Road towards Checkpoint 300. When you drive all the way to the end, there\u2019s a big gate that the army uses when it goes into Bethlehem. It\u2019s actually the end of Hebron Road, and when I reach the end, I\u2019m used to seeing the closed, sealed area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That day, as I drove, I noticed that the gate was slightly ajar! I clearly remember the feeling, physically, I suddenly felt there was a little air; I remember experiencing a different, unfamiliar sensation. That\u2019s what I mean when I say there\u2019s a claustrophobic experience here. I ask myself how can you experience such claustrophobia and be in a state of prayer, of infinity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
End of Hebron Road, Gate Number 22, 2021, Photograph: Gaston Zvi Itzkovitz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> Yes. But maybe it actually goes together \u2013 in one respect, the Palestinians\u2019 prayer after they pass through the checkpoint in the morning, in the inconceivable crowding, and the Jews\u2019 prayer at Rachel\u2019s Tomb, are similar; it\u2019s this closing off that embodies the highly restricted maneuvering space you have in reality that also turns the prayer into a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> Yes, but there\u2019s a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Palestinian laborer, who\u2019s in survival mode from the outset, gets up at three-thirty, four o\u2019clock in the morning and starts the arduous journey to the checkpoints, which includes walking, driving, standing, security inspections, not to mention more extreme things, and after all that he prays. And maybe after everything he endures, praying is the moment that can possibly release him from reality; in contrast with those who pray at Rachel\u2019s Tomb, who can reach the site safely and with relative ease, not after standing at a checkpoint, without having to sneak in. As the site becomes established, it creates a safe, comfortable reality for Jewish worshipers that hadn\u2019t existed before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> I think the broader aspect that this resembles, which is clearly evident in this fortified space, is that in prayer and religious outlook, in the name of which people cling to this place, there\u2019s something that transcends actual reality and its physical conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You asked if it\u2019s even possible to resolve this contradiction between a fenced place that\u2019s so restricted physically, and infinity. Maybe there\u2019s a possible answer here. When we were there, one of the things that jarred me, or surprised me, was that besides the images there are also verses about Rachel\u2019s death, her burial, and about Jacob setting a pillar on her grave, \u201cThat is the pillar of Rachel\u2019s grave unto this day\u201d (Book of Genesis, 35:20). These verses that identify the site as a holy biblical place are inscribed on a plaque resembling a parchment scroll \u2013 in Hebrew, in Torah-scribe letters, and translated into English. The display of the seminal text on the walls of the site serves as proof, characteristic of holy sites, that this is the place. The powerful contrast between the concrete wall and the biblical verses encapsulates the contradiction in this place between the reality of military control and the religious ethos that justifies it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava:<\/strong> And on that note\u2026 [laughs]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> We shall light a beacon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hava: <\/strong>Yes [laughs].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaston:<\/strong> You weren\u2019t asked to this year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Aus Dankbarkeit und zur Erinnerung von den Obersterreicher Pilgern in das Heiligen Land.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gil<\/em> Weissblei, \u201cPhotographic Testament: 100 Years of History at Rachel\u2019s Tomb\u201d, Blog of The Librarians: The National Library of Israel, 25.06.2017.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Nadav Shragai, \u201cThe Story of Rachel\u2019s Tomb\u201d, Shearim Publications, <\/em>2005, 52-60.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> Glenn Bowman, \u201cA Weeping on the Road to Bethlehem: Contestation Over the Uses of Rachel\u2019s Tomb\u201d, Religion Compass, 7(3), 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a> Anthropologist Nurit Stadler discusses Rachel\u2019s Tomb as belonging to the type of women\u2019s holy sites, such as the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in the Valley of Jehoshapat, and the Tomb of Rachel, Wife of Rabbi Akiva, which resemble wombs, a kind of \u201cwomb tomb\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nurit Stadler, \u201cAppropriating Jerusalem Through Sacred Places: Disputed Land and Female Rituals at the Tombs of Mary and Rachel\u201d, Anthropological Quarterly<\/em>, n.d., 725-58; Nurit Stadler and Nimrod Luz, \u201cThe Veneration of Womb Tombs Body-Based Rituals and Politics at Mary\u2019s Tomb and Maqam Abu al-Hijja (Israel\/Palestine)\u201d, Journal of Anthropological Research, 70<\/em>(2) (2016); Nurit Stadler, Voices of the Ritual: Devotion to Female Saints and Shrines in the Holy Land<\/em>, Oxford University Press, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> Yoram Elmakias, \u201cIn the Fields of Bethlehem: Bethlehem and Rachel\u2019s Tomb in Zionist Consciousness\u201d, Judea and Samaria Research Studies, 26<\/em>(1), 2016, 101-120.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/a> Situated at the northern edge of Bethlehem, the checkpoint (officially, Rachel\u2019s Checkpoint) is staffed around the clock by the army, Border Police, and private security companies. It is classified as a \u201cterminal\u201d, and Palestinians are not allowed to cross into Jerusalem unless they hold entry permits into Israel, or are residents of East Jerusalem. Israeli tourist buses are allowed to enter Bethlehem only through this crossing (according to the websites of MachsomWatch and B\u2019Tselem).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/machsomwatch.org\/he\/node\/52652<\/a> https:\/\/www.btselem.org\/hebrew\/freedom_of_movement\/checkpoints_and_forbidden_roads<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/a> Nurit Stadler, Voices of the Ritual<\/em>, 120-124. See also the iconography of the icon and the ritual surrounding it as an expression of hope, faith, connection to the land, resistance, hopes of dismantling the wall, and peace: Stadler, 125-128.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8]<\/a> According to Nurit Stadler, \u201cFrom the perspective of the ritual, the icon of Mary is another form or public space to claim the lands\u201d: Stadler, 125.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9]<\/a> Nurit Stadler, Voices of the Ritual<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10]<\/a> The antechamber at Rachel\u2019s Tomb is also identified by Muslims as Bilal bin Rabah Mosque, named after the Ethiopian slave who served as the Prophet Mohammed\u2019s first muezzin, and was killed in Syria during the wars of Islam. According to Nadav Shragai, after the Western Wall Tunnel riots in 1996, this identification served the Palestinian Authority in appropriating the tomb enclosure, and later in Muslim claims of exclusivity over Rachel\u2019s Tomb. Nadav Shragai, \u201cThe Story of Rachel\u2019s Tomb\u201d<\/em>, 231-249.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A conversation between photographer, artist, and lecturer Gaston Zvi Ickowicz, and Hava Schwartz, a tour guide who teaches and researches the history of visual art and culture<\/p>\n

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