See also:
Israel Builds Museum on Muslim Graves
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m48397&hd=&size=1&l=e
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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1032596.html
Last update - 00:00 30/10/2008
Wiesenthal Center gets green light to build museum on ancient Muslim
cemetery
By The Associated Press
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Los Angeles-based Jewish organization
behind
the project, welcomed the court ruling and said work on the $250 million
museum would resume immediately after a two-year delay caused by the legal
proceedings.
"All citizens of Israel, Jews and non-Jews, are the real beneficiaries of
this decision," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Wiesenthal Center,
in
a statement.
Israeli Islamic movement spokesman Zahi Nujidat, however, condemned the
court
for what he called "clear religious and ethnic oppression".
The court sought to reconcile religious attitudes for respecting the dead
with the legal requirements and gave project managers 60 days to agree
with
the state-run Antiquities Authority on a method of either removing any
human
remains for reburial or installing a barrier between the building's
foundations and the ground below which would prevent graves from being
disturbed.
The cemetery, with graves the court said dated back 300-400 years, fell
out
of use after the creation of Israel in 1948. But many of its headstones
are
still visible, crumbling among trees in what has become the heart of the
Jewish side of the city. Part of the cemetery is now known as Independence
Park.
Another section was sold in the 1930s, at the initiative of the top Muslim
clergyman of Jerusalem, to become a hotel.
The museum's Muslim opponents found unexpected allies in their struggle:
Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who aren't known for their sympathy for Arab causes
but
who care about preserving graves.
The Antiquities Authority has said it's impossible to cease construction
every time graves are found, because it happens so often. Israel has more
archaeological sites per square mile than anywhere else in the world.
Often, when construction turns up Jewish graves, it is Orthodox Jews who
protest and disrupt the work. Typically the problem is solved by raising
the
road or slightly altering its route.
The Wiesenthal Center says the complex was conceived to promote
coexistence
in a city holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians, and claimed by both
Israelis
and Palestinians as a capital. The center's plan includes a conference
center, a theater, and museums for adults and children with exhibits
covering
Jewish history and Israel's relations with its Arab neighbors. The center
was
designed by the renowned architect Frank Gehry.
"Jerusalem is 3,000 years old and every stone and parcel of land has a
history that is revered by people of many faiths," Hier said. "We are
deeply
committed to do everything in our power to respect that sacred past, but
at
the same time we must allow Jerusalem to have a future."
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