Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Tolleranza

Israel plans to build 'museum of tolerance' on Muslim graves
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
The Independent
9 February 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article344233.ece
Skeletons are being removed from the site of an ancient
Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem to make way for a $150m
(#86m) "museum of tolerance" being built for the Los
Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
Palestinians have launched a legal battle to stop the work
at what was the city's main Muslim cemetery. The work is
to prepare for the construction of a museum which seeks
the promotion of "unity and respect among Jews and between
people of all faiths".
Israeli archaeologists and developers have continued
excavating the remains of people buried at the site -
which was a cemetery for at least 1,000 years - despite a
temporary ban on work granted by the Islamic Court, a
division of Israel's justice system. Police have been
taking legal advice on whether the order is legally
binding. The Israeli High Court is to hear a separate case
brought by the Al Aqsa Association of the Islamic Movement
in Israel next week.
The project, which a spokesman said had been conceived in
partnership with the Jerusalem municipality and the
Israeli government, was launched at a ceremony in 2004 by
a cast of dignitaries ranging from Ehud Olmert, who is
currently the acting Prime Minister, to the governor of
California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Israeli branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre declined
to comment yesterday and has had no role in the project.
Durragham Saif, the lawyer who brought the Islamic Court
petition on behalf of three Palestinian families, Al
Dijani, Nusseibeh and Bader Elzain, all of whom have
members buried at the cemetery, said: "It's unbelievable,
it's immoral. You cannot build a museum of tolerance on
the graves of other people. Imagine this kind of thing in
the [United] States or England. And this is the Middle
East where events are sensitive. If this goes ahead in
this way it is going to cause the opposite thing to
tolerance."
Mr Saif said he had written to the Israeli State Attorney,
Menachem Mazuz, seeking police enforcement of the original
order. He said on a visit to the site he had entered three
out of five tents where excavations were being carried
out. "I was shocked to see open graves and tens of whole
skeletons there," he said.
Ikrema Sabri, the Mufti of Jerusalem, demanded a halt to
the excavations and said the Muslim religious authorities
had not been consulted on the dig. Saying that the
cemetery was in use for 15 centuries and that friends of
the Prophet Mohamed were buried there, the Mufti declared:
"There should be a complete cessation of work on the
cemetery because it is sacred for Muslims."
Under Israel's "absentee property" law the cemetery was
taken over by the Custodian of Absentee Property after the
1948 war. Mr Saif said the Custodian had no right to sell
the cemetery to the Jerusalem municipality in 1992. While
parties to the work are resting part of their case on what
they say was an 1894 ruling by the then Sharia court that
the sanctity of a cemetery could be lifted, Mr Sabri said
that ruling meant that only a Muslim could make such a
decision.
Osnat Goaz, a spokeswoman for the Israel Antiquities
Authority, which is carrying out the excavations, said it
was common in Jerusalem to build on cemeteries. Adding
that in such cases the bones were reburied, she said:
"Israel is more crowded with ancient artefacts than any
other country in the world. If we didn't build on former
cemeteries, we would never build."

 cemeteries, we would never build."
Quoto.
-Stefano