This one stopped me, made me wonder if I need to have my eyes adjusted.
This is an invitation to a benefit next spring for Canadian friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. On the cover of the invite you will see Arianna Huffington, Thomas Friedman of the NY Times, Fareed Zakaria of CNN fame, and Aayan Hirsi Ali. They’ll all be speaking at the May 31 event at a Toronto synagogue.
Hold on. This is the same Simon Wiesenthal Center that is building a “Museum of Tolerance” in Jerusalem on a 12th Century Muslim cemetery.
Muslims are very angry about the desecration of the Mamilla cemetery, and many non-Muslims are too. Below is a photo of the cemetery that I took a couple months ago. Some British tourists were surveying the scene with uncomprehension. Those are gravestones in the foreground, and the construction walls of the Museum of Tolerance right on top of them. “Grotesque,” says Rashid Khalidi, whose ancestors are buried there, as are many other historical figures.
Mamilla Cemetery Desecration
This giant dis to Muslims in the name of “Tolerance” is the reason that Jews Say No has weekly demonstrations outside the Simon Wiesenthal’s NY branch. Many Jews want nothing to do with this project. Frank Gehry, who was supposed to design the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, bowed out of the project when the facts were brought to his attention.
I wonder if the Toronto speakers’ lineup will last when word gets out about the endorsement. Will Zakaria hang in there? He took a truly noble stand against the ADL when they came out against the Islamic Center in lower Manhattan.
Here is Khalidi leading a group of the Palestinian families who are appealing to the U.N. to stop the desecration of the Mamilla Cemetery. He writes: “It is a matter of grave concern that Israeli authorities are continuing to treat the Islamic religious sites and cultural heritage in the Holy City of Jerusalem in a manner that amounts to further desecration.” He’s referring to the fact that Israel has granted scores of Jewish historical sites the legal status of cultural heritage sites, but no Muslim sites are on its frekking list. Here’s a post about Mamilla in that Jim Crow context, from an American Muslim group that is justifiably up in arms. And here’s a deeply angry, turbulent, overwhelmed post I did about that pattern back in September. Called the “Pharaoh of Jerusalem,” it describes the destruction of Muslims’ access to the tomb of Samuel, which both Jews and Muslims consider holy. This still makes me upset.
Reminder: We’re talking about a city that Theodor Herzl promised the Ottoman sultan (and the Pope too) would be extraterritorialized if the Zionists ever got a stake in Palestine, because of these sensitivities…
P.S. Also testimony to the power of the media. Three powerful figures, all media figures. Tables start at $18,000. That’s power. Thanks to Jeff Blankfort.
