The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Leaders of West Bank communities this week sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inviting him to hold a cabinet meeting at Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs.

The letter — written by Avi Roeh, chairman of the Yesha Council, and Ze’ev Hever, secretary-general of the Amana housing organization — was sent after UNESCO designated the Cave of the Patriarchs, one of Judaism’s holiest places, as an endangered Palestinian heritage site.

“After hundreds of years in which the Jews were permitted to reach only the seventh step in the structure of the cave, today Muslims and Jews pray together on the graves of the patriarchs and matriarchs without interference, and the cave is open to all religions,” the letter stated. “There is no one who guards the Cave of the Patriarchs like the State of Israel.”