ABSTRACT
This chapter reveals the story of the political and legal dispute of the Nachmanides Cave. According to Jewish tradition, Nachmanides used to pray and study Torah in a cave near Jerusalem, and some Hebrew literature identifies this location as close to Simon the Just Cave in Jerusalem. Beilin, a member of the Labor Party, is known for his moderate to left-wing positions regarding territorial compromise with the Palestinians, thus representing a far different policy than his predecessor Yitzhak Cohen. In some places in modern-day Israel, after contemporary rabbis have passed away, their houses became holy places, such as the house and tomb of Rabbi Israel Abuhatzeira in Netivot, in southern Israel. In other cases, local Muslim saint tombs were "converted" into Jewish saint tombs. According to the abovementioned criteria, if a group of people pray in such a place for a number of years the holiness of this site becomes a valid fact.
