Israeli Arabs clean and repair graves at an old Muslim cemetery in downtown Jerusalem (Photo: AFP)

The Lebanese-based organization Hezbollah has denounced an Israeli project to build a museum on the site of a Muslim cemetery in west Jerusalem. Last week, the Supreme Court of Israel decided to give the Museum of Tolerance the go-ahead. The court found that the cemetery dates back 300 to 400 years but fell into disuse after Israel gained statehood in 1948. The court said that since there had been no objections in 1960, when the city built a parking lot over part of the cemetery, it would not block construction of the museum on the same property.

According to Agence France-Presse, Hezbollah spoke against “the profanation of a historical Muslim cemetery in occupied Jerusalem, a profanation authorized by the [Israeli] enemy, which has allowed an American company to build a museum on the site.” The Palestinian mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, also denounced “a serious decision” by the Israeli Supreme Court and noted that the building will destroy a Muslim holy site.

Ironically, the Center for Human Dignity - Museum of Tolerance, which has been designed by Frank Gehry, is to be dedicated to promoting tolerance among peoples. The official website calls it “a place that will remind us that greater than any external threat is the internal divide that separates us”. The 3-acre campus will include two museums, a library-education center, a conference center and a 500-seat performing arts theater. The estimated cost of the project is $250 million

Artist’s rendering of Frank Gehry-designed Center for Human Dignity-Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem

Take a virtual tour of the museum

Read more:
Israeli court OKs Museum of Tolerance’s controversial branch (Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2008)
Hezbollah against Gehry Museum in Jerusalem (Artforum.com, Nov 3, 2008)
Arabs rally against building Tolerance Museum atop Muslim cemetery (Ha’aretz, Nov 6, 2008)
Palestinians protest at Israeli plan to build museum on Muslim (Independent, Nov 6, 2008)
Palestinians protest against Museum of Tolerance planned over (Telegraph.co.uk, Nov 6, 2008)

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This entry was posted on zaterdag, november 8th, 2008 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Culture, Ethics, Heritage, History, Middle-East, Museum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.