[News] Protest continues against construction of Jewish museum on desecrated Islamic cemetery

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Nonviolent protest continues against construction of Jewish museum on 
desecrated Islamic cemetery
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=698&Itemid=1

(Jerusalem) Palestine News Network
Tuesday, 03 October 2006

Palestinians inside the Green Line are holding a nonviolent sit-in 
throughout Tuesday in protest of the Israeli decision to build a 
Jewish museum on the ruins of an Islamic cemetery, Ma'man Allah, in Jerusalem.

Earlier this year the Israeli government began destroying the 
Palestinian cemetery, exhuming corpses amid widespread protest by the 
Al Aqsa Foundation to Preserve Muslim Holy Sites. United States and 
Israel are working together in their bid to build a "Museum of 
Tolerance" on the desecrated cemetery.

On Tuesday morning the Israeli Supreme Court resumed deliberating the 
case of whether to continue exhuming bodies from Jerusalem's Ma'man 
Allah Cemetery and go-ahead with museum construction. The Islamic 
position is to cancel museum plans and preserve the sanctity of the cemetery.

The Al Aqsa Foundation issued a statement Tuesday saying, "American 
Jews, clergymen and representatives of the American companies that 
support building the 'Museum of Tolerance' arrived from America 
especially to attend sessions of the Israeli Supreme Court regarding 
the cemetery in an attempt to influence the decision and give the 
museum heightened significance. Building this museum is absolutely racist."

Head of the Islamic Movement inside the Green Line, Sheikh Ra'ed 
Salah, sent a call to the Secretary General of the Organization of 
the Islamic Conference and to the Secretary General of the Arab 
League, Amr Mousa, to help save Ma'man Allah. Sheikh Salah outlined 
Israeli attacks on Islamic holy sites and gave a brief history of the 
current case.

Museum construction is being sponsored by a Los Angeles, 
California-based company to link the Jewish people living in 
Jerusalem to surrounding settlements, the Sheikh explained. The Al 
Aqsa Foundation appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court in February 
2006 to stop desecration of the cemetery. The court appointed a 
retired Israeli judge as mediator who attempted to convince the Al 
Aqsa Foundation to transfer the remains of Muslim's to another site. 
Ma'man Allah Cemetery has been in use in Jerusalem for hundreds of years.

The Al Aqsa Foundation not only rejected such a suggestion, but also 
indicated that the Israeli and American venture intended to mislead 
the public by saying they were ready to preserve part of the cemetery.

Also on Tuesday the Israeli Supreme Court heard a case in appeals in 
which Israeli companies are bidding to build apartments on another 
Islamic cemetery.


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