Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said that the Israeli authorities started new excavations at East Jerusalem's Ma'man Allah cemetery to build the Museum of Tolerance complex on the site. The foundation said that bulldozers of the Jewish-dominated Jerusalem municipality started the excavations in the cemetery's western part at depths of more than 15 meters. It added that the Israeli authorities placed corrugated iron sheets around the cemetery to bar Palestinians from documenting the excavations and the razing of graves. The cemetery, which includes the graves of the companions of Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) and located near Al-Khalil Gate, is the biggest and oldest graveyard in Palestine. The foundation said that Israel is expected to exhume the remains of more than 1,000 Muslims during the excavations. The $150 million complex, designed by Israeli Chyutin Architects firm, when completed will include a museum, conference and education centers, a library and a theater, all dedicated to promoting tolerance in Israel and abroad. Because the work involves unearthing hundreds of skeletons, it has aroused fierce opposition from Muslim and Jewish groups, who petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court against it. The foundation slammed the project calling it “immoral and illegal.” “The cemetery's holiness and sacredness will stay there forever and never go away,” the foundation said. It called on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to register the cemetery as an international historical site. It also called on “the leaders and peoples of Islamic and Arab countries to defend the holy sites in Palestine.”
