Jerusalem families come out against museum built on ancestors' graves

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Members of prominent Palestinian families from Jerusalem came out last week in protest against plans by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to build a Museum of Tolerance on top of part of the ancient Mamilla Cemetery where their ancestors are buried.

The initiative includes filing a petition in Geneva to various United Nations human rights bodies and to UNESCO, the Paris-based UN agency responsible for protecting the world's cultural heritage. The petition was also addressed to the Swiss Government, which is the repository for the Geneva Conventions.

One family member behind the initiative said it is not just symbolic, but instead a full-blown campaign. He expects this issue to be included in a resolution being drafted for a March session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

In the East Jerusalem press conference at which this initiative was announced last week, petitioner Asem Khalidi noted that a number of men from Salah al-Din's army, who liberated Jerusalem from the Crusaders, were buried in the Mamilla Cemetery.

Much of the momentum behind the initiative comes from Palestinians who grew up and who still live in the Diaspora, many of them in the United States. Press conferences were held in Jerusalem, Geneva and Los Angeles, home of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (and the first Museum of Tolerance, built in 1993), which says it is moving forward with its plans despite passionate legal and moral opposition."

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[snagglepuss]

1. Israelis are intent on alienating the entire world with their ever escalating

despicable actions. It's as if they relish the animosity they create and can't get enough of it. The mindset of thugs and bullies.

[Dick Dastardly]

2. The area is not a grave site, it is adjacent to the grave site and has been a municipal parking lot

for around 50 years.



Hypocrisy and lies fuel enemies of a Jerusalem museum



You may have read reports that opponents of a new Museum of Tolerance being built in Jerusalem, having lost unanimously in the Israel Supreme Court, are now taking their case to the United Nations - accusing the Wiesenthal Center I founded of building our museum on the historic Mamilla Muslim Cemetery.

This is a slander - and a completely hypocritical one at that.

Our opponents would have you believe our bulldozers are preparing to desecrate ancient Muslim tombstones and historic markers. Let me be clear: The Museum of Tolerance is not being built on the Mamilla Cemetery, but on an adjacent 3-acre site where, for a half-century, hundreds of people of all faiths have parked in a three-level underground structure without any protest.



Yet while we would never build on the cemetery, a newly discovered 1945 article from the Palestine Post shows that the Supreme Muslim Council, before there was a State of Israel, did, in fact, have such plans.

And guess what they were going to build on it? A business center.

In the Thursday, July 22, 1945, edition of the Palestine Post, it was reported:

"An area of over 450 dunams <111 acres> in the heart of Jerusalem, now forming the Mamillah Cemetery, is to be converted into a business centre. The townplan is being completed under the supervision of the Supreme Muslim Council in conjunction with the Government Town Planning Adviser. A six-storeyed building to house the Supreme Muslim Council and other offices, a four-storeyed hotel, a bank and other buildings suitable for a college, a club and a factory are to be the main structures. There will also be a park to be called the Salah ed Din Park, after the Muslim warrior of Crusader times."

The article continues, "The remains buried in the Cemetery are being transferred to a spot round the tomb of al Sayid al Kurashi, ancestor of the Dajani family, in a 40-dunams walled reserve."

And it continues, "In an interview with Al Wihda, the Jerusalem weekly, a member of the Supreme Muslim Council said that the use of Muslim cemeteries in the public interest had many precedents both in Palestine and elsewhere. He quoted the cases of the Bab al Sahira (Herod's Gate) Cemetery, which formerly stretched down Saint Stephen's Gate; the Jaffa Cemetery, which was converted into a commercial centre; and Queen Farida Square in Cairo, which not long ago was a cemetery."



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http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/02/19/2010-02-19_hypocrisy_and_lies_fuel_enemies_of_a_jerusalem_museum.html



Terra Incognita: Demagoguery at its finest
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
09/02/2010 21:44


The controversy surrounding Jerusalem’s Mamilla cemetery exposes the unfortunate hypocrisy of the project’s loudest opponents.


In early January it was reported that famed architect Frank Gehry had ended his participation in the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s project to build a Museum of Tolerance in downtown Jerusalem. It is the latest in a controversial saga that has united old Muslim Jerusalemite families, Arab protesters and Reform Jews in attempts to stop the project. In April 2004, a groundbreaking was held to inaugurate construction. The museum was slated to be built atop an eyesore of a parking lot that abutted a disused cemetery that was the site of overgrown weeds, trash, illicit meetings and drunks. Its graves lay in a state of extreme neglect.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=168255






Here are 1945 news clips

1945 news clipping shows Moslem Council planned to build on Mamilla Cemetery
http://www.jerusalemdispatch.com/2010/02/1945-news-clipping-shows-moslem-council-planned-to-build-on-mamilla-cemetery/



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http://www.jpost.com/LocalIsrael/InJerusalem/Article.aspx?id=168489


http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=168899


http://www.jewishjournal.com/israel/article/mamilla_cemetery_chutzpah_and_the_museum_of_tolerance_20100219/

[snagglepuss]

3. Hardly a mix of unbiased sources. JTA's op-ed is spot on.

Yet while winning the legal argument, Wiesenthal has lost the moral one. What is legally permissible may be ethically questionable and religiously offensive. Indeed, there is something perverse and ironic about building a monument to tolerance that will be a permanent source of tension in the region and that undermines the mutual respect and trust that tolerance requires. Furthermore, constructing the museum in Mamilla sets a dangerous precedent that will undermine Jewish efforts to preserve abandoned Jewish cemeteries and sacred sites in Eastern Europe and the Muslim world.

A large and growing number of responsible, mainstream Jewish voices have spoken out against the museum, including the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center. Dr. Rafi Greenberg, a prominent archaeologist at Tel Aviv University, has argued that Mamilla is one of the few surviving Islamic sites in western Jerusalem and therefore must be left intact.

Especially important has been the criticism of the former rector of the Hebrew University, Professor Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, who is perhaps Israel’s most prominent expert on the geographical history of Jerusalem. Ben-Arieh has cast doubt on the claim that Muslim authorities permitted construction on the grounds of the graveyard in the past, and has asserted that building the museum will cause damage to Jewish-Muslim relations that will last for generations.

It is true that radical Islamic voices, within and outside of Israel, have attacked the museum, and not a few of these voices are motivated by hostility to Jews and the Jewish state. Sadly, Wiesenthal spokespeople have attempted to portray all criticism of the museum as the rantings of Israel bashers and left-wing fanatics. They have gone as far as to suggest that those who attack the museum are serving non-Zionist ends and delegitimizing the Jewish state.

Such claims, however, are absurd.


http://jta.org/news/article/2009/02/02/1002693/op-ed-dont-build-wiesenthal-musem-on-disputed-jerusalem-site

[Douglas Carpenter]

4. Under the Wiesenthal Center's supervision, more than 200 skeletons have been unearthed at the site.

LA Times: Desecrating a Muslim cemetery with a Center for Human Dignity

Palestinians in Israel have protested the piecemeal destruction of Jerusalem's Mamilla Cemetery over the decades. It's just that their complaints have fallen upon deaf ears.

snip:

The crux of the dilemma is a simple moral one: The Wiesenthal Center is seeking to build a Center for Human Dignity on top of a Muslim cemetery, a historic landmark and a place held sacred by many. Under the Wiesenthal Center's supervision, more than 200 skeletons have been unearthed at the site.

The cemetery land, along with other property in the waqf (Islamic trust), was designated as "absentee property" when West Jerusalem came under Israel's control after 1948. The land was ruled no longer sacrosanct in 1964 by the state-sanctioned Islamic Sharia Court in Jerusalem, whose members were appointed by Israel and largely distrusted by the Muslim population. In violation of international law, the land was then designated by Israel as public open space, and the municipality built a parking lot on it.

Hier's claim that there has not been any opposition to the building of the parking lot ignores the fact that the government imposed martial law on Palestinians in Israel until 1966. Under this martial law, Israel ensured that any indications of national spirit or identity among Palestinians were quickly and forcefully crushed.

Despite this, Muslims in Israel did legally oppose the designation of waqf land as absentee property in the 1960s, lobbied to rebuild and maintain the Mamilla graves after the 1967 war, protested the desecration of the graves in the '70s and '80s, and today oppose the Center for Human Dignity's construction on the cemetery land. One cannot blame Muslims in Israel because their protests fall on deaf ears.

Hier's assertion that the "Israeli Supreme Court deliberated for almost three years before unanimously . . . authorizing the Wiesenthal Center to begin construction" must be understood in context. This is the same court that has long excused internationally condemned apartheid-like policies and human rights violations against Palestinians, including occupation, settlement construction and denying refugees the right to return. An organization like the Wiesenthal Center -- whose proclaimed mission is to protect the human rights and dignity of all people -- must certainly understand that the Israeli Supreme Court's decision does not settle the moral issue. Building a Museum of Tolerance over the cemetery will only add to the existing pain and suffering of Palestinians and Israelis, further damage relations between Muslims and Jews worldwide and sow new feelings of animosity and division for generations to come.

Ironically, the same Wiesenthal Center that now plans to destroy Jerusalem's historic Muslim cemetery previously spent nearly 15 years forcing the removal of a Roman Catholic convent from Auschwitz, which the organization's associate dean said in 2005 is "the largest Jewish cemetery -- the single largest unmarked human graveyard -- in history," and it "deserves universal respect." Does the Wiesenthal Center believe that a different set of standards should apply to Jewish cemeteries versus non-Jewish ones?

Out of respect for human dignity, which is what this museum is supposed to honor, it would behoove the Wiesenthal Center to relocate the building to land that is not a burial ground. Doing so would not only save the center time and money, it would also keep the name of their Center for Human Dignity from becoming a mockery.

Hussam Ayloush is the greater Los Angeles area executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/16/opinion/la-oew-ayloush17-2010feb17

[Ken Burch]

5. Why is the Wiesenthal Center so adamant about building this museum in a controversial area?

Couldn't they do the decent thing and build it in an area where human bodies don't have to be disinterred?

It's absurd to insist on building this in a historically Arab area.

Kind of a contradiction of the whole "Museum of Tolerance" idea, really. Unless the message the Wiesenthal Center is trying to send is that, as far as Israeli treatment of Palestinians goes, tolerance SHOULD be put in a museum.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

6. Do the "Yellow plate only" roads lead to this museum?

[oberliner]

7. Every car in Israel has yellow plates

And the proposed museum site is in Israel - West Jerusalem.

[shergald]

8. Jerusalem was known as Al Quds for over a thousand years....

when it was the Arabic capital of Palestine. There is therefore a lot of Palestinian history inside of what is now Jerusalem, but also Muslim history, and it contains the third most holy Islamic site. Attempts to deny this history is not really in Israel's best interests, as it will only rile Muslims everywhere from Morocco to Indonesia.

I would think that the Israelis, in spite the strong ethnocentricism that pervades, were smarter than this, not to have total respect for this history.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

9. It still is. nt

[oberliner]

11. And the largest city in the West Bank has been known as Hebron for over a thousand years

It has been one of the principal centers of Judaism until Abraham's tomb was converted into a church and then later a mosque by the Christian and Muslim conquerors of that city.

I think Israel has done a much better job of respecting and protecting Muslim holy sites throughout the country than others before them with regard to Jewish holy cites.

There are Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem that are off-limits to non-Muslim Israelis.

[Douglas Carpenter]

13. surely you must know that most Palestinians cannot even enter Arab East Jerusalem

or pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City, even if they live only minutes away. Even though both their homes and the Al Aqsa Mosque are located in Occupied Palestinian Territory according to international law.

[oberliner]

22. As bad as the Jordanian occupation?

With respect to access granted to Jewish people to sites in Jewish East Jerusalem? The Western Wall, for instance?

I would say that Israel has done a better job of protecting holy sites (to all faiths) in East Jerusalem than any of the previous entities who have ruled there, from Jordan in the 1950s and 60s on back.

[Douglas Carpenter]

24. the fact remains that the vast majority of Palestinians -whether Christian or Muslim have no access

to their holy sites in Jerusalem or even access to East Jerusalem which is Occupied Palestinian Territory. At the same time, the entire strategy of the Israeli government is to construct a road system which cuts off access by the vast majority of Palestinians to East Jerusalem permanently. Which seems to imply that permanently the vast majority of Palestinians - whether Christian or Muslim many have no access at all to their holy sites in East Jerusalem -

The vast majority of Palestinians, unlike Israeli settlers, will not be able to exit in areas surrounded by the barrier or travel into Jerusalem, even into the eastern part of the city, which Israel took over in 1967.

The road does that by having Palestinian traffic continue through underpasses and over bridges, while Israeli traffic will have interchanges allowing turns onto access roads. Palestinians with Israeli identity cards or special permits for Jerusalem will be able to use the Israeli side of the road.

The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has recently made conciliatory gestures to the Palestinians and says it wants to do what it can to ease the creation of a Palestinian state. But Mr. Olmert, like Mr. Sharon, has said that Israel intends to keep the land to the east of Jerusalem.

To Daniel Seidemann, a lawyer who advises an Israeli advocacy group called Ir Amim, which works for Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in Jerusalem, the road suggests an ominous map of the future. It is one in which Israel keeps nearly all of East Jerusalem and a ring of Israeli settlements surrounding it, providing a cordon of Israelis between largely Arab East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, which will become part of a future Palestinian state.


snip: "In the end, he said, “there is no Palestinian state, even though the Israelis speak of one.” Instead, he said, “there will be a settler state and a Palestinian built-up area, divided into three sectors, cut by fingers of Israeli settlement and connected only by narrow roads.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/world/middleeast/11road.html?pagewanted=1&_r=14&ei=5070&en=22948d4799a34065&ex=1187496000&emc=eta1

[oberliner]

25. When you say Palestinians...

...are you referring only to Palestinians living in the occupied territories or do you also mean Palestinians who are Israeli citizens?

[Douglas Carpenter]

26. no, Israeli citizens and Palestinians with recognized Jerusalem residency are able to visit

their holy sites in Jerusalem. But the vast majority of Palestinians cannot even if they live minutes away - and again I point out that most of these holy sites are in Occupied Palestinian Territory.

[oberliner]

27. Very valid points

It is my profound hope that someday in the near future there are two independent states living side by side at peace with one another and Israelis can visit Jewish, Christian, or Muslim sites inside the Palestinian state freely while Palestinians can visit Muslim, Christian, or Jewish holy sites with Israel freely as well.

[Douglas Carpenter]

28. that is my hope too, of course

but unfortunately, neither of the two largest Israeli parties - Kadima or Likud seem to share that vision. No one that I am aware of is predicting a Labor/Meretz government for the foreseeable future - who might be more amenable to such an arrangement

[oberliner]

32. Kadima seems to be in the process of re-inventing itself

It only recently came into existence and I do think there is the potential for there to emerge a pragmatic, moderate party from within Kadima that would be able to move Israel in that direction.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

10. Makes sense that those whom Israel does not tolerate wouldn't be welcome. nt

[oberliner]

12. Everyone in Israel would be welcome

However, this museum is specifically dedicated to tolerance among Jewish people of different races and ethnicities.

There already exists a museum in Israel dedicated to tolerance (actually coexistence) among Jews, Muslims, Christians, and others.

It is called The Museum on the Seam. Perhaps you've been there?

http://www.coexistence.art.museum/Coex/Index.asp

[ProgressiveMuslim]

14. FCOL Oberliner. A museum of TOLERANCE on a Muslim Cemetary, built while practicing APARTHEID?

As my 15 yo says: whatevs.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[oberliner]

16. The parking lot next to the cemetery

But whatevs.

Article about museum site (including photo of parking lot):

http://www.jewishjournal.com/los_angeles/article/protests_over_jerusalem_museum_of_tolerance_spread_20081210/

[ProgressiveMuslim]

17. Practitioners of the vilest discrimination ought not to be touting tolerance, doncha think?

Makes the Hasbara challenges easier, that's for sure.

[oberliner]

19. The museum is being built by the Simon Weisenthal Center

I do not believe that they are "practitioners of the vilest discrimination".

Israel seems to be a good location for such a museum for a variety of reasons.

The protests against the building of the museum seem to be quite a boon for the anti-Hasbara crowd.

It's always good to have another incident that can be used to fuel the anti-Hasbara propaganda about how "vile" Israel is!

Just need to tweak a few of the facts to fit the anti-Hasbara narrative.

[Violet_Crumble]

18. The parking lot was built on top of the cemetry...

There's nothing the slightest bit tolerant about insisting on building a Museum of tolerance on top of an old graveyard in the face of opposition from people who find the whole thing incredibly tacky and offensive. There's nothing wrong with the concept of the museum, so they should go build it on a site that's not going to mark them as being so incredibly intolerant...

[oberliner]

20. True

However, no further damage would be done to the existing cemetery that has not already been done by the building of the parking lot many years ago.

I agree with you that it seems not the best idea to put the museum in this particular location; however I think that some folks are making a bigger issue out of this for propaganda purposes. Probably you don't agree with that, but I think some of the language and outrage around this building site is a bit overheated.

[Violet_Crumble]

21. Actually, I do agree with what you said...

I think it's being used for propaganda purposes by some folk on both 'sides'. I read yesterday that the architect had withdrawn permission to use his plans for the museum, so at this point if I were the planners I'd be looking at the publicity, the impact building on that site will have on the museums reputation, and moving it to a new location that doesn't involve old graveyards...

[oberliner]

23. Where did you read that about the architect?

Here's something I read a while ago:

Frank Gehry said, “I greatly value my relationship with Rabbi Marvin Hier and admire his determination to establish a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem that will serve as the embodiment of human respect and compassion. Unfortunately, our staff and resources are committed to other projects around the globe, and thus I will not be able to participate in the redesign effort. Contrary to a published report quoting my partner Craig Webb, this parting has nothing whatsoever to do with perceived political sensitivities. The Museum of Tolerance project is vitally important, and I have no doubt that Rabbi Hier will create a visitor experience that will bring people of all faiths closer together.”

http://www.jewishjournal.com/israel/article/architect_frank_gehry_withdraws_from_plan_to_build_museum_of_tolerance_in_j/

[Violet_Crumble]

30. In one of the threads here yesterday...

Yr not appearing to be disagreeing that the architect has pulled out of the project, I noticed...

[oberliner]

33. Yes, I read that he pulled out of the project a while back

I have not read that he was withdrawing permission for the use of his plans or that there was a political dimension to the withdrawal.

[aranthus]

29. Why both sides?

I think that it's clear that the anti-Museum side is overstating their case for propaganda purposes, but the pro-museum side? I don't think as much. Do you know why they chose that site? I don't, but maybe you think there's something there. Maybe they didn't think that there was a real problem because there was a parking structure built over the former part of the cemetary, but you'd think that someone would have considered the politics of the situation before they chose the site. Maybe they did, and maybe they didn't.

[Violet_Crumble]

31. Because some on both sides are doing it....

And one of them is the guy from the Wiesenthal centre who's running the show. Didn't you notice that an article by him was posted as an OP a few days ago? Because it was full of intolerance towards another religion and leant heavily on the 'If They Did Something Long Ago, That Makes It Okay For Me To Do It Today!' line of argument. Also, it's come thick and fast from some 'supporters' of Israel since this thing first became known a few years back...

Bottom line. It's not a museum of tolerance if intolerance is a huge factor and its built on a cemetary. If they were truly interested in building something that's a monument to tolerance, then they need to build it somewhere else...