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Last update - 00:00 30/10/2008
Wiesenthal Center gets green light to build museum on ancient Muslim cemetery
By The Associated Press
Tags: Simon Wiesenthal, coexistence 

The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave a final go ahead to the creation of a Jerusalem museum dedicated to tolerance and coexistence, rejecting appeals by Muslims who object to construction because the site covers part of an ancient Muslim cemetery.

A court statement said judges ruled that since no objections had been lodged in 1960 when the city put a parking lot over a small section of the graveyard they would not block construction of the museum on that same site now.

The Museum of Tolerance aims to bridge this contentious city's warring tribes together. But its planning alone has sparked a fight with political, religious and historical dimensions between Muslims and Jews.
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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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      1.   Cemetery 18:32  |  Batya 29/10/08
      2.   The Museum of Tolerance? 18:39  |  Mark Lincoln 29/10/08
      3.   You`d laugh if it wasn`t so appalling. 18:51  |  Michael 29/10/08
      4.   Where are the Arab Hassidim?? 18:52  |  Goy 29/10/08
      5.   Take the $250 Million to relocate the "settlers" 19:04  |  BBSNews 29/10/08
      6.   A grave matter 19:14  |  Motic 29/10/08
      7.   To all the self righteous posters on grave desecration... 19:41  |  bat yam 29/10/08
      8.   Irony of ironies 19:43  |  Yaakov Sullivan 29/10/08
      9.   bat yam and her crocodil tears 19:50  |  Yaakov Sullivan 29/10/08
      10.   Hey sullivan, don`t you need to get yourself to CA for prop 8? 19:53  |  nogaysingaza 29/10/08
      11.   1960: a parking lot was acceptable. 20:06  |  Girl from the South 29/10/08
      12.   Jewish cemeteries in Arab countries 21:22  |  Realist 29/10/08
      13.   Cemetery 22:32  |  P Hill 29/10/08
      14.   museum of tolerance 23:14  |  Marvin Hirschhorn 29/10/08
      15.   Any actual grave found? 00:28  |  DJStahl 30/10/08
      16.   Bat yam on Gaza "settlements"... 00:29  |  BBSNews 30/10/08
      17.   Tolerance indeed 00:58  |  Anthony 30/10/08
      18.   7 01:01  |  Anthony 30/10/08
      19.   Green Light! 01:10  |  James Qalqilia 30/10/08
      20.   desecrating a parking lot 01:15  |  peter 30/10/08
      21.   THECemetry was deconsecrated by Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini 01:42  |  PETER SM 30/10/08
      22.   Definitely poetic 03:30  |  Colin Wright 30/10/08
      23.   Museum dedicated tolerance and coexistence. 04:08  |  Maureen Ann 30/10/08
      24.   They Should Still Build... 04:37  |  Yosemite 30/10/08
      25.   Museum of Tolerance as a facility is valued project in Jerusalem 04:38  |  Smadar 30/10/08
      26.   Light unto the nations? 04:41  |  Mike 30/10/08
      27.   WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE TOLERANT OF THE SELF CHOSEN 05:12  |  i ain`t lying 30/10/08
      28.   cemetary 06:29  |  albert 30/10/08
      29.   #12 Not Much to Report 19:32  |  Patriot 07/11/08
      30.   Shame 21:06  |  Kim 07/11/08
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