Rashid Khalidi talking on Democracy Now today about the "Museum of Tolerance" that is being built on a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem. Today descendants of those buried there petitioned U.N. bodies in Geneva to stop the project.
[M]any protests were made. There were protests made from the early ’60s, when the first of these desecrations started. That’s false. And the fact that it was desecrated in the ’60s doesn’t mean that it’s right to desecrate it further. What happened in the 1960s was that part of the cemetery was paved over for this parking lot. What they have now done is to dig down and disinter four layers, according to the chief archaeologist for the Israeli Archaeological Authority, four layers of graves. There are more probably beneath those, according to his report, which was suppressed in the submissions to the Israeli Supreme Court.
AMY GOODMAN: And that they’re saying there are no bodies buried there?
RASHID KHALIDI: Well, the chief archaeologist’s report contradicts what Rabbi Hier [of Simon Wiesenthal Center] says. I would go with the chief Israeli archaeologist over the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, frankly.
AMY GOODMAN: Have you met with the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center?
RASHID KHALIDI: I have not had that pleasure, no.
AMY GOODMAN: They’ve had no direct contact with Palestinian families like yours, then?
RASHID KHALIDI: No, nor did Muslim religious authorities have anything to do with the reinterment, wherever it is, of the remains, whatever they are.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean?
RASHID KHALIDI: We have no idea where these people were reburied. They claim they were reburied. We, families of people—there are fifteen families, sixty people, who have ancestors in that cemetery. We’re the petitioners. Nobody ever told us where these remains were reburied. I mean, imagine if, 400 years ago, you had ancestors in a cemetery, and somebody came along and said, “We’re going to build whatever it is there,” dug them up and buried them somewhere else without telling you where. This is what they’ve just done, according to his statement.
We are asking that this be treated as a Heritage site, which is what it is. The fact that it’s still being desecrated, not just by this museum, but by vandalism of the remaining tombs, is a scandal. This is a very, very important Heritage site. And so, one of the things we’re demanding is that it be treated as such. And we’re going to UNESCO and other bodies, asking that they do their duty.
Secondly, we’re asking that there be a reinterment under religious supervision, with the families knowing where their people have been reburied within the cemetery.
And finally, that this project, this grotesque project, be stopped. There have been offers to move the museum elsewhere. At one stage, the mayor of Jerusalem even suggested that it be moved elsewhere.
