They paved paradise and put up a…
For the last 40 years Mohammed Hamdi Bader has left his tailor’s shop in the Old City once a month and taken a short walk to the heart of west Jerusalem where he prayed close to his grandfather’s grave.
But the 49-year-old Palestinian father-of-five can no longer reach the grave and he’s furious about it.
The Maamam Allah cemetery, which is at least 1,000 years old, has become a building site.
The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre is constructing a Museum of Tolerance on the cemetery. The centre says the museum will seek to promote “unity and respect among Jews and between people of all faiths”.
The project has raised the ire of the Muslim community in the city. There have been accusations that exhumed remains have been damaged.
Despite a temporary injunction on work at the site issued by the Islamic Court – a division of the Israeli justice system – Israeli archaeologists and developers have continued excavating remains at the cemetery, says Durgham Saif, a Palestinian lawyer. [source]
So your grandfather’s grave has just been dug up so that his cemetery can get paved over for a “Museum of Tolerance”…
What would you do?
Ù?ا ØÂÙ?Ù? Ù?Ù?ا Ù?Ù?Ø© اÙ?ا باÙ?Ù?Ù?
This is so ironic,its making me laugh.They’re making human bombs with their own hands.
This story is very similar to what has often happened over here in the US in relation to American Indians. The so-called “Great White Father” seems oblivious to the sacred sites of these different cultures. It’s a very paternalistic and disrespectful approach.
How on earth can a center promote tolerance by acting intolerant within the very community they say they want to show they can tolerate?
As a personal aside, I detest the use of the word “tolerance”. In order to be tolerant of something or someone, you must think of yourself as higher or better than what or who it is that is to be tolerated. Correspondingly, those that are to be tolerated must, from your view, be lower or worse than yourself. Consequently, the act of being tolerant negates itself as it only reinforces the belief that you’re better than whoever you choose to tolerate.
I prefer to embrace and respect diversity. Respecting something different necessitates no hierarchy.
Please please don’t switch from cartoons to graves.
Here’s a headline from Haaretz
“Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance put on hold”.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/679568.html
This was the first link I have found when googling “Museum of Tolerance” site:haaretz.com
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Museum+of+Tolerance%22+site%3Ahaaretz.com&btnG=Google+Search
Doing this small search is what any blogger can do before posting anything. But also this is the reason blogs have comments so that other people, even from across borders, can comment and correct.
And yes. When I have heard of this I found it strange and stupid. I am glad it had been stopped and hope some decent solution will be found.
Hanan, this is my blog and I’m free to post whatever I please. I am not a media source to be held accountable by the public or by governments. If you don’t like it then that’s too bad. That’s why they call it a personal blog.
as for the museum; emphasis on “put on hold” and “suspended” and “The court decided in a preliminary hearing not to suspend construction until then”
if Israel really wanted to show some “tolerance” they would’ve cancelled the whole plans for it.
it will be built eventually
the Israelis are right about one thing though…
Hanan, put on hold means exactly what it says! why take this decision in the first place and why not cancel it right away? (assuming that the objection of Muslim families came as a surprise to authorities!)
“put on hold” is code for “get more lawyers on it.”
for israel to simply consider this construction says a lot about their stance on tolerance.