Jerusalem, Oct 02: Israeli defence minister Binyamin ben Eliezer today said he had reimposed a ban on Jewish pilgrims travelling to the tomb of Joseph in the West Bank town of Nablus, public radio said. Speaking to the parliament's foreign affairs and security committee, he said he had renewed the ban for security reasons and that anyone caught flouting it would be arrested, the radio said.
His decision came in the face of pressure from the left-wing of his Dovish Labour Party, which held a Congress yesterday, the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz said.
To access the tomb -- which is holy to both Jews and Muslims -- worshippers have to pass through the middle of Nablus, for which they need prior permission from the army as Israeli citizens are normally forbidden from entering areas which the Oslo agreements assigned to exclusive Palestinian control.
Last week, Ben Eliezer issued a temporary permit allowing prayers at the tomb during the Jewish festival of Sukkot.

The new Israeli commander for the west bank, Moshe Kaplinsky, who took over in early august, had in any case eased the total ban imposed by his predecessor, Yitzhak Eitan, allowing at least two groups of Jewish pilgrims to visit the tomb over the past two weeks, Haaretz said.
But on September 20, the army spokesman said a group of pilgrims, including several children, had been detained for entering the "closed military zone" and endangering their own lives and those of soldiers in the sector. Bureau Report