RAMALLAH, West Financial institution — The Israeli police have tightened the siege on the Yusufiya cemetery close to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, whereas the municipality and the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority have been demolishing elements of the cemetery and tombstones since Oct. 25.
On Oct. 28, the Israeli authorities fenced the partitions surrounding the cemetery and put in surveillance cameras, and on Oct. 29, Israeli police fired tear fuel to stop dozens of Jerusalemites from visiting their useless.
The Jerusalem municipality has been working additional time to demolish extra elements of the cemetery since Oct. 17, when the Jerusalem Justice of the Peace’s Courtroom rejected a request submitted by the Committee for the Care of Islamic Cemeteries in Jerusalem to droop bulldozing the cemetery and exhuming graves.
The Israeli authorities are looking for to show this a part of the cemetery, which incorporates the Martyrs’ Monument the place Palestinians and Jordanians who fought within the 1967 warfare are buried, right into a public biblical park, across the partitions of the Outdated Metropolis.
The Yusufiya cemetery was established firstly of the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, nevertheless it was restored and expanded in the course of the reign of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi and was named after him — Youssef bin Ayoub bin Shadi. It’s an extension of the Bab al-Rahma cemetery. After the town was occupied in 1967, the Jerusalem municipality took possession of the half that features the graves of the martyrs.
The entire space of the Yusufiya cemetery is 25 dunums (about 6 acres), 4 dunums (1 acre) of which Israel goals to construct the park over. It is without doubt one of the 4 Islamic cemeteries in Jerusalem and is positioned close to the Jerusalem wall and the Lions Gate, which is crucial entrance to the Outdated Metropolis.
Najeh Bakirat, the deputy director-general of the Jerusalem Waqf, informed Al-Monitor that the bulldozing is a part of a much bigger Israeli mission, which is constructing a temple within the place of Al-Aqsa Mosque, so it’s working to determine biblical parks surrounding the Outdated Metropolis and the partitions of Al-Aqsa, to overwhelm Jerusalem’s public scene with Judaization.
That work is continuing on three ranges, Bakirat mentioned. The primary is to erase the Arab-Islamic scene, akin to Islamic cemeteries and houses, and to switch them with Israeli parks that embody indicators in Hebrew.
It’s also attempting to displace Muslim Jerusalemites, in order that many started burying their useless exterior the town. However, Israel is growing the variety of Hebrew settlers and attracting them to the town, he defined.
The third method, Bakirat mentioned, is changing Arabic names with Hebrew ones, in addition to altering the final geographical scene. He expects that Israel won’t cease at concentrating on 4 dunums of the Yusufiya cemetery, however will proceed to nibble on the remaining areas till it takes management utterly.
Bakirat identified that Israel did the identical within the Ma’man Allah cemetery, on which Israel constructed the Museum of Tolerance, along with vacationer amenities. Israel took management of the location in 1948. The municipality constructed two streets within the western a part of it, after which the Independence Park, an enormous parking zone, the Leonardo Plaza Jerusalem Resort, and a number of other cafes. Within the japanese a part of the cemetery, it started building the Museum of Tolerance.
The Palestinian Authority warned in opposition to bulldozing the Yusufiya cemetery, as President Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor for non secular and Islamic affairs, Mahmoud al-Habbash, spoke on Oct. 27 about “the continuing crime dedicated by the occupation’s bulldozers in opposition to the Yusufiya cemetery in occupied Jerusalem. …This might result in violent confrontations with the occupation forces in a means that nobody expects.”
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Hussein, informed Al-Monitor, “The cemeteries are a part of the id of the holy metropolis and its narrative, and proof of the Arab and Islamic presence within the metropolis for 1000’s of years. Obliterating the town’s landmarks is within the curiosity of the Jewish settlement mission and the Israeli narrative, which is embodied by altering the names of Arab cities, neighborhoods, and streets, and the Judaization of public locations and landmarks.”
Ahmed Dajani, a member of the Committee for the Care of Islamic Cemeteries in Jerusalem, informed Al-Monitor that the realm within the Yusufiya cemetery that Israel is bulldozing consists of the stays of dozens of Jordanian troopers who died the 1967 warfare. Jerusalemites needed to burry them there in mild of the curfew imposed on the town at the moment.
The Israeli Nature and Parks Authority and the Israel Antiquities Authority are colluding with the Jerusalem municipality on the mission, Dajani mentioned: “Earlier than beginning any mission, the Israel Antiquities Authority searches for antiquities and bones, nevertheless it didn’t accomplish that within the Yusufiya cemetery, as a result of the Jerusalem municipality needs to hold on with the mission it doesn’t matter what, though it’s nicely conscious whom the stays buried there belong to.”
