Palestinians Appeal to the UN to Stop Construction of the “Museum of Tolerance” on Muslim Cemeteries 

In 2005, the Simon Wiesenthal Center announced plans to build a “Museum of Tolerance and Human Dignity” in Western Jerusalem. The museum would serve as a place to promote "unity and respect among Jews and between people of all faiths. The Museum, which is to include a general museum and a children's museum, a theater, conference center, library, gallery and lecture halls, is based on the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, California, which attracts over 250,000 visitors a year. 

The concept of the museum was applauded by many until it was discovered that it would sit atop one of the oldest Muslim cemeteries in Jerusalem, the Mamilla Cemetery, which may hold remains from as far back as the 12^th century. To prevent the desecration of the cemeteries, in January 2006, just one month after construction of the museum began, the Al-Aqsa Association, a Palestinian nongovernmental organization, filed an urgent petition with the Israeli Supreme asking the court to issue an injunction order to stop the construction. Karamah, another nongovernmental organization, then filed a petition with the Sharia Court in Israel on behalf of three Palestinian families and filed a follow up petition with the Supreme Court.  After hearing both petitions, the Supreme Court issued an injunction on February 22, 2006, which halted the construction on the site. The case was finally decided in October 2008, when museum advocates successfully argued before the Court that the land on which they intended to build the museum was now a municipal car parking lot, built on the site of part of the cemetery in the 1960s. The museum advocates argued that, because construction of the car parking lot of the 1960s was not opposed, opposition to the museum’s construction should not prevent construction.

That Court, however, failed to account for important information. The car parking lot construction was approved by an Israeli-created “Islamic trust,” one of many founded by the nation shortly after 1948. These trusts were, and continue to be, seen as illegitimate by Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinian residents of the occupied territories, as Muslim officials on those boards have earned a reputation for corruption and the rubber-stamping of Israeli government projects. Moreover, there is evidence that protests actually did take place during the car parking lot construction in the 1960s; but, because martial law was in place at the time, and because that law seriously limited the rights of Palestinians to protest and petition, Palestinians were not able to actively oppose construction of the car park site.

The Court also failed to account for important testimony. The Simon Wiesenthal Center has asserted that no remains or bones remained on the site, and that the oldest remains found at the site during initial excavation were “only” 300-400 years old. These remains, at their oldest, would predate the Mayflower coming to America and, at the youngest, would predate the founding of the United States. The statement by the Center directly contradicts statements made by the chief Israeli Antiquities Authority archeologist at the site, Gideon Suleimani, who stated that, “We’re talking about tens of thousands of skeletons under the ground there.” He argued that the construction should not be approved, as the site contains as many as four layers of Muslim graves from as far back as the 12^th century. The Israeli Antiquities Authority, however, chose to withhold Mr. Suleimani’s testimony from the Supreme Court during the 2008 hearing for undisclosed reasons.

Frustrated by the Israeli Supreme Court decision, in February 2009, opponents of the museum petitioned the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to intervene and stop excavation. “We have nowhere else to go,” said Rania Madi of BADIL, a Palestinian human rights organization. The construction, which opponents argue will violate Muslim religious and cultural rights, has been contested by Israeli and Palestinian groups as well as foreign countries, including Turkey.

The petition to the United Nations is a last ditch effort to protect the sacred site. The petition states, “This construction project has resulted in the undignified disinterment and disposal of several hundred graves and human remains, the exact amount and whereabouts of which are currently unknown and threatens to erect a monument to ‘Human Dignity’ and ‘Tolerance’ atop thousands more graves.” According to the Palestinian-Israeli Center for Research and Action, around 250 remains have already been removed from the site, many without the proper procedures. “The dead have no one to defend them,” Suleimani opined. The United Nations, unfortunately, lacks the authority to make a legally binding decision in the matter, but the petitioners hope that the increased visibility and world pressure brought by the international organization will be enough to get the construction stopped. “The international community,” one activist stated, “can stop this easily.”

If the international community cannot stop it, then Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s founder, says that the project will go on. “You can appeal to the moon, it isn’t going to help you… the case is over; get used to it,” he told the families appealing the decision to desecrate the area where their ancestors are buried.

“This tolerance museum, to us, is a museum of intolerance,” said Dyala Husseini, whose ancestors and husband’s ancestors are buried in the Mamilla Cemetery. “Our families are here in Jerusalem and have been here for centuries,” she said. An Israeli activist who opposes the project called it a “strange joke” that a Museum dedicated to the principles of “mutual respect and social responsibility” should be built in such a location.