UPDATE. My last attempt to prevent the Center for Tolerance to be built on the Muslim Cemetery in Jerusalem. 4 Articles+ 2 VIDEO's
Reageer (5)Anti War.com
Museum of Tolerance Desecrates Graves
by John Taylor
31-3-2010
Rabbi Marvin Hier’s Los Angeles-based Museum of Tolerance, part of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is building a $150 million branch in Jerusalem.
The Museum, whose mission is confronting "global anti-Semitism, extremism, hate … and promoting unity and respect among Jews and people of all faiths," is being built atop part of the Mamilla Muslim cemetery, some of whose burials date to the 11th century. The graves, which may contain the remains of soldiers who fought with Saladin against the Crusaders, are being uprooted to make way for Rabbi Hier’s new museum.
More than a few commentators, including a number of Israelis and some of Israel’s friends in this country, have argued strongly that a Museum of Tolerance built literally upon the bones of Palestine’s indigenous Arab population is hypocritical, intolerant, and wholly absurd. A case could be made, however, that tearing out centuries-old Muslim graves and replacing them with an American-financed Museum of Tolerance symbolizes Zionist policy and practice toward the Palestinians from the birth of modern political Zionism a century ago down to the present day. It also exemplifies America’s role as an enabler of Israeli ethnic cleansing.
The new building certainly mirrors one of Zionism’s key objectives: driving out the Arabs and replacing them with newly minted Israelis from around the world. As Moshe Dayan once put it, “Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. … Nahalal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushu’a in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.” So even today only an Israel-centric narrative seems to matter, and all else in the Holy Land can be consigned to the dustbin of history, or, in the case of human remains from the Mamilla cemetery, excavated hastily with pickaxes and sledgehammers and tossed into cardboard boxes or crushed under the treads of bulldozers [.pdf].
Rabbi Hier, when trying to justify the choice of site for his Museum of Tolerance, likes to argue that it is being built on a municipal parking lot, not a cemetery, and that, in any case, Muslim religious authorities "desanctified" the area years ago. He also relishes saying that work on the museum proceeded only after the Israeli Supreme Court approved the project (true) and that that occurred when the Israeli Antiquities Authority released the site for construction upon completion of its excavations (not true).
A parking area was in fact part of the site selected for Hier’s project, but the Mamilla cemetery’s burials lay intact under its pavement. The chief archaeologist assigned to the museum site by the Antiquities Authority, Gideon Suleimani, declared [.pdf] after test pits were dug in November 2005 that "the entire area ‘abounded with graves,’ and that under the parking lot there was a crowded Muslim cemetery, containing 3 or 4 layers of graves."
After starting to excavate the entire site, Suleimani recorded that representatives of the Simon Wiesenthal Center "who were seeking to establish facts on the ground" would visit the site "on a daily basis" to urge that excavations proceed more rapidly "to prevent the Muslims from halting the project." These same representatives, according to Suleimani, even threatened to sue the Antiquities Authority if the project were delayed. The excavators began working 12 hours a day, six days a week.
With only 10 percent of the site completely excavated, 250 burials properly recorded, 200 skeletons exposed, but an estimated 2,000 graves remaining, archaeological work was halted. Unbeknownst to Suleimani, his superiors at the Antiquities Authority had notified the Supreme Court that "almost the entire area of the excavation has been released for construction, because it contains no further scientific data." Hier’s museum received the Supreme Court’s blessing. All Suleimani could do was swear out an affidavit accusing his superiors of "archaeological crime" and the destruction of "an opportunity to study the history of Jerusalem over the last millennium."
As for Rabbi Hier’s assertion that an Islamic court had desanctified the Mamilla cemetery in 1964, it is perhaps worth noting that Arabs in Israel were under martial law until 1966 and that the Israeli government appointed the members of that court. A more recent Islamic court ruling declared that Muslim cemeteries could never be officially abandoned [.pdf]. It seems a bit presumptive of Rabbi Hier to hold himself out as an expert on Sharia law. Clearly his opinions will never carry any weight with the Jerusalem Palestinians whose ancestors’ remains are being disinterred to make way for the Museum of Tolerance. One might also observe that the Wiesenthal Center, having spent years lobbying to expel a Carmelite nunnery from the grounds of Auschwitz, is somewhat inconsistent when it comes to deciding what constitutes desecration of graves.
Many will acknowledge that there is a painful conflict when the Wiesenthal Center builds a museum of tolerance atop an ancient cemetery. Hatred increases, and the stated objectives of the institution are likely to be frustrated. Somewhat less obvious, however, are the conflicting goals of the Wiesenthal Center itself. The Center’s "primary mission is to fight racism, prejudice, and discrimination in all its forms and to promote civic discourse, social justice, tolerance, and mutual understanding" and to "teach the lessons of the Holocaust." But along with these worthy objectives [.pdf] comes another goal – "to stand by Israel," which in practice means defending Israel from any and all criticism, no matter how justified, about the way it treats Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular.
For example, Hier fully approves the now two-year-long Israeli siege of Gaza, which makes life miserable for the 1.5 million Palestinians confined on that small strip of land, the vast majority of whom are totally innocent of launching attacks on Israel. According to Hier, the tight blockade began when Gazans began to fire rockets into southern Israel, although Israel actually put the siege in place after the people of Gaza had the temerity to choose Hamas to represent them. Further, Hier supported last year’s ground campaign in Gaza, during which Israel attacked critical civilian infrastructure and UN facilities (including warehouses and schools), killed 1,400 people, and destroyed thousands of homes.
The language Hier chooses to justify the invasion is most revealing. He states that "even after Auschwitz" the world resents Israel defending itself, and he implies that rebuilding Gaza with Hamas in power would be akin to letting "a Fourth Reich … continue the policies of Adolf Hitler" and that the world’s reaction to the Israeli invasion shows that "the real lessons of World War II have yet to be learned." Can Rabbi Hier actually be using the Holocaust as a weapon to defend Israel’s massive overkill and inhumane policies in Gaza? Had Hier himself and other friends of Israel actually learned the lessons of Holocaust, they would be supporting the Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are cold, hungry, living in miserable conditions, unemployed, and desperate.
Rabbi Hier is very sensitive to accusations that Israel has established an apartheid regime on the West Bank, and the Wiesenthal Center has attacked Jimmy Carter’s book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Although this is not the place for a nuanced discussion of the similarities between the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the now-defunct South African regime, suffice it to say that Palestinians under occupation live a very different existence from their Israeli settler neighbors. Palestinians are subject to Israeli military rule, their movements are controlled by a network of check points, their lands and water resources are being stolen, and they have virtually no political rights. If the Wiesenthal Center’s "primary mission is to fight racism, prejudice, and discrimination in all its forms," it has manifestly failed on the West Bank and in Gaza.
The biggest difference between apartheid South Africa and Israel is that the Israelis depend upon a phalanx of friends abroad to permit them to circumvent international law and generally accepted standards of morality and fair play in their relationship with the Palestinians. The Simon Wiesenthal Center may claim the moral high ground, but it is just one of a large number of well-financed American institutions enabling Israeli bad behavior. That bad behavior has the most unfortunate additional effect of creating enemies for the United States across the Muslim world.
Source
-------------------------------------
Etnische zuivering betekent ook het systematisch verwijderen van historische plaatsen en gebouwen die herinneren aan degenen die gezuiverd worden. In dit geval betreft het een eeuwenoud moslim-kerkhof in Jeruzalem, of althans, wat er nog van over is. De Ma'man Allah Begraafplaats, ook bekend als de Mamilla Begraafplaats, is een duizend jaar oud moslim-kerkhof in wat nu het centrum van Jeruzalem is. Al 70% van het kerkhof is verwijderd om plaats te maken voor een parkje, genaamd 'Onafhankelijkheidspark', dat tegenwoordig fungeert als homo-ontmoetingsplaats.
Nu moet de rest van het kerkhof plaats maken voor een Israëlisch museum, dat nota bene 'Museum van Verdraagzaamheid en Menselijke Waardigheid' gaat heten. Hoe zou er in Nederland gereageerd worden wanneer moslims eeuwenoude (christelijke) graven met overblijfselen van kruisvaarders e.d. zouden opgraven en verwijderen, voor bijvoorbeeld een Marokkaans cultureel centrum? Serge van Erkelens
-------------------------------------
Electronic Intifada
Jerusalem families come out against museum built on ancestors' graves
By Marian Houk
 |
The grave of Ahmad Agha Duzdar al-Asali, the mayor of Jerusalem in the 19th Century, in the Mamilla cemetery. (Wikipedia)
19-2-2010
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.
Mamilla Cemetery
The corner of the Mamilla Cemetery slated for construction was paved over in the 1960s, and used as a car park. When excavations began on the site in 2005, human remains were found, and the chief archeologist stated that he believed there were many thousands of graves in many levels in that section of the cemetery.
The cemetery is situated in West Jerusalem, which fell under Israeli control during the fighting that surrounded the proclamation of the self-declared Jewish state in mid-May 1948. There have been no new burials since that time. From the May 1948 war, until the June 1967 war when Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, the cemetery was inaccessible to many if not most of the Palestinian families concerned, who were living under Jordanian administration.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center claims that it has spent a lot of money on reburying -- in "a nearby Muslim cemetery" -- the remains it has excavated there. However, a press release announcing the initiative of the Palestinian families said that "It was an active burial ground until 1948, when the new State of Israel seized the western part of Jerusalem and the cemetery fell under Israeli control ... The construction project has resulted in the disinterment and disposal of hundreds of graves and human remains, the whereabouts of which are currently unknown."
The Los Angeles-based center broke ground for the Jerusalem branch of the Museum of Tolerance in a corner of the Mamilla Cemetery in May 2004. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered the keynote address.
Families denied justice
There are 60 individual Palestinian petitioners from some 15 Jerusalem families including Adnan Husseini, the Palestinian Authority's appointed Governor of Jerusalem; AbdulQader Husseini, the son of the late Faisal Husseini, who was the Palestine Liberation Organization representative in Jerusalem; and Sari Nusseibeh, head of Al-Quds University in Abu Dis.
Rashid Khalidi, Professor of History at Columbia University in New York, who is also a petitioner, has been closely involved in organizing this effort. In an interview with Democracy Now! he explained that the petitioners are asking that the Mamilla Cemetery be treated as a heritage site. "This is a cemetery where people have been buried since the 12th century ... The fact that it is still being desecrated, not just by this Museum, but by vandalism of the remaining tombs, is a scandal". He said the families were also asking for "reinterment of the excavated remains under religious supervision", with information provided to the families about exactly where "within the cemetery."
Palestinian and Israeli co-petitioners include the organizations Al-Haq, Addameer, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, the Arab Association for Human Rights, Badil and the Zochrot Association.
Because it is in West Jerusalem, Palestinians have been hesitant to take any high-profile action asserting either physical or moral claims.
Until now, much of the opposition to the building plan has come from Israeli and Jewish rights activists who have argued, in part, that the construction on this site offended their Jewish beliefs and values. They have worked through the Israeli court system, and through appeals directed mainly to Israeli and international Jewish public opinion.
Gershon Baskin, co-director and founder of the Israeli Palestinian Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), told this reporter that the first he heard of the Museum of Tolerance project was in newspaper reports of the ground-breaking ceremony. "We came in only after the whole thing was licensed and all the legal proceedings were finished -- and this is one argument that the court used against our petitions."
The Israeli high court has recently dismissed another challenge and ruled that the Museum of Tolerance construction project is legal, and can proceed. Baskin believes that the legal avenues in Israel are now basically now closed.
Meanwhile, a private Palestinian offer to donate an alternative location for the Museum of Tolerance hasn't been taken up by the Wiesenthal center.
At a public discussion sponsored by IPCRI in East Jerusalem in March 2009, attended by lawyers representing the Wiesenthal Center and the Museum of Tolerance project in West Jerusalem, Dr. Mohammad Dajani of Al-Quds University in Abu Dis offered to donate alternative land for construction of the museum in Anata near the concrete wall that Israel is currently building around the Jerusalem area. The offer was for 12 dunams (one dunam is approximately 1,000 square meters). At that alternative site, Dr. Dajani said to the public meeting, both Israelis and Palestinians could visit the future Museum of Tolerance -- which many Palestinians would not be able to do if it were built in the heart of West Jerusalem, as is currently planned.
The lawyers for the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Museum of Tolerance merely smiled, without replying.
About six months ago, Dr. Dajani said, he was surprised by an Israeli military decision to confiscate, "for security reasons," about half of the parcel of land he had offered for the museum project. Just this past week, he said, he received a new notification that the military intends to take the remaining six or so dunams as well. He said he is challenging the order.
Marian Houk is a journalist currently working in Jerusalem with experience at the United Nations and in the region. Her blog is www.un-truth.com.
Source
-------------------------------------
VIDEO
Zie ook hier, hier en hier
Today’s Jerusalem Post reported the following:
“The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Tuesday accused opponents of its plans to build a museum near a historic Muslim cemetery in central Jerusalem of “sheer hypocrisy” after the center obtained information showing that the Supreme Muslim Council of British Mandate Palestine had planned to build a large commercial center directly on top of the cemetery in 1945.”
This is not news. This appeared in their claim to the Israeli High Court already two years ago. My response and my position on this has always been the following:
What Muslims do or do not do on sacred Muslim property is a matter for the Muslim community and believers to deal with. What the State of Israel does, the City of Jerusalem and the Jewish people do on sacred Muslim property is completely a different matter. The State of Israel, the City of Jerusalem in which the State of Israel is the sovereign and the Jewish people cannot and should not build anything on top of a Muslim cemetery without the explicit agreement and participant of the representatives of the Muslim community. Furthermore, the very idea of building of the State of Israel, the City of Jerusalem and the Jewish people building a CENTER FOR TOLERANCE on top of what was a Muslim cemetery sounds like something out of the annals of bad political fiction and fantasy. It is such an amazingly bad idea that it is almost impossible to imagine that it is in fact really happening. (Dr. Gershon Baskin, leader of the ad hoc public campaign against building the Wiesenthal Center of Tolerance in the Mamilla Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem)
I would like to share with you a letter that I wrote to the Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. I received no response and therefore I have decided to make the letter available to the public.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Rabbi Marvin Hier
Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center
Los Angeles, Ca.
Delivered to: Oded Barry, Attorney
Dear Rabbi Hier,
You and I are not enemies. What you do and what I do come from the same place, even if we end up with very different conclusions. I am a Jew, and an Israeli (by choice) and a Zionist. My life’s work for peace between Israel and her neighbors comes from who I am and my life’s experiences, as a Jew, a Zionist and an Israeli. I am entirely motivated by my love for our people, our land and our Holy city, Jerusalem.
I live in Jerusalem and I love this city. I have always believed that we, the Jewish people, have the possibilities to disprove the theory of Samuel Huntington of the inevitable clash of civilizations between the West and Islam. I honestly believe that in Jerusalem we have the possibility, perhaps the only possibility in the world, to prove that the three monotheistic civilizations can not only live in peace, we can actually create a celebration of diversity - learning about each other and fostering not only true tolerance but even a sense of appreciation for each other’s religions, customs, rituals, and cultures.
This is possible only if we first learn to respect the sacred spaces of each other in this wonderful city. This is why I have been so passionate in my objection to the location selected for the Center for Tolerance in Jerusalem. I think that the idea of a real center for tolerance in Jerusalem could be the “flag ship” for fostering the vision of Jerusalem as the world’s center for the celebration and appreciation of diversity. The Center for Tolerance in Jerusalem could potentially be one of the most important and compelling places of learning in the entire world to which the world will turn to seek wisdom about how to make peace and how to live in peace. This is a great vision, one that I would be pleased to be associated with. But that vision will never be achieved if the Center for Tolerance is built on its current location. It will never be accepted by the world as a center for tolerance and will always be considered a scar on the very fragile tissue of Jerusalem’s face.
The need to scale down the project and Frank Gerhy’s exit from it create an opportunity to turn this project around. I have no interest in you losing face or in crediting this as a victory to the Arabs and the Muslims. I have never joined forces with the Islamic movement on this issue and we have tried all along to present our argument as a Jewish and Israeli one. I think that there are ways that we can work together to move the Center to a different location without appearing to have given in to unreasonable demands from extremist Arabs and Muslims.
I believe that the Jerusalem Municipality and the Mayor would be willing to work with you to find an alternative suitable location and find the appropriate explanation why the Center is being relocated.
I am making a commitment to work with you to gain the full support and cooperation of the Palestinians Muslims and Christians inside of Israel and in the Palestinian Authority area to work with the Center to foster the goals of tolerance and understanding. I am more than willing to work with you to gain the support of the Muslim world for this important project as well. This can really be an historic undertaking with achievements far beyond what would be possible if the Center is built in its current location.
I beg you to reconsider your options. You have won the battle. The Israeli Courts and Government Authorities are on your side. We, those who have opposed your plans have lost. But we can all come out winners, and more importantly, the City of Jerusalem, the Jewish people and the State of Israel can come out as winners if you accept the proposal to move the Center to a different acceptable location.
I appeal to you, let’s work together to make a real positive contribution towards peace, understanding and real tolerance.
Best wishes,
Dr. Gershon Baskin
Co-CEO
Source
Overzicht Reacties over dit Artikel
Plaats een Reactie |
Reactie van Truus | datum: 2010-02-22 11:00:30 |
|
Oja Herman,
Weer een prima bericht!..overgenomen naar : http://www.vkblog.nl/bericht/302108/SDB_en_de_berichtgeving_over_de_Mamilla_begraafplaats_in_Jeruzalem En natuurlijk een dikke aanbeveling! Kuan er een mogelijkheid komen tot wijzigen?...dan hoef ik er geen 2 berichten aan te spenderen in het vervolg... |
||
|
Reactie van Truus | datum: 2010-02-22 10:52:23 |
|
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=168899
Ik ga ervan uit dat u wel weet waar dit over gaat.....feiten zijn nu eenmaal feiten...of je ze nu wilt verdraaien of niet , het blijven feiten.... Jullie zouden je diep moeten schamen.... |
||
 |
Reactie van Roos De Fraine | datum: 2010-02-17 14:57:47 |
|
Zij die op Facebook zitten kunnen Gershon Baskin (Israël Palestine Center for Research and Iformation (IPCRI) en groen parlementslid in de Knesset) steunen door
1)lid te worden van de 'cause' over die bouw van dat museum: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/139417?m=d6e8348b 2) Fan te worden van IPCRI: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5485548498&;ref=mf 3)FB-vriend te worden met Gershon Baskin: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=716645365&;ref=mf Info over IPCRI op de website: http://www.ipcri.org Ook erg waardevol: FB-group: Our Shared Environment - Middle East Environmental Caucus :http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&;gid=5816759222 en: FB-group: Walk the green line. Gershon Baskin wandelt samen met groepen geïnteresserden langs de 'groene lijn': http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5569027385&;ref=mf [Walk the green line is a political event which is also a fundraiser for IPCRI - the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information. The Green Line is the demarcation line of the armistice agreements of 1949 and today serve as the basis for the negotiations for Israeli-Palestinian for the two states for two peoples solution. On May 24-26, 2010 for the third time we will walk parts of the green line, meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and peace activities and make a political statement through our actions. All participants will generate sponsors who will support them in this event. All revenues will go to support the work of IPCRI.] |
||
