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<font size=3>Nonviolent protest continues against construction of Jewish
museum on desecrated Islamic cemetery <br>
<a href="http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=698&Itemid=1" eudora="autourl">
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=698&Itemid=1<br>
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</a>(Jerusalem) Palestine News Network <br>
Tuesday, 03 October 2006 <br><br>
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.
<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.
<br><br>
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."
<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.
<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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