Retailiation for what? Retaliation IMHO for Isrealis (with funding from the Los Angeles based Simon Wiesenthal Center) constructing, get this, a Museum of Tolerance on the site of an ANCIENT Muslim cemetery in Jerusleum. Can we all say provocative? What could possibibly be more provocative than destroying an ancient cemetary?
Palestinians have been fighting it since 2004 but in Feb 2010 the Israeli Supreme Court gave construction the go-ahead. So is it simply coincidence that Muslims are now planning a cultural centre near Ground Zero? Its a dumb idea but who can blame them? It is outrageous for Israelis to be so provocative and insensitive.
snip
"This is not mere callous indifference to the dead. A Muslim cemetery dating back to the 11th Century is a reminder that Israeli’s are the newcomers to this land they claim is eternally theirs. Rabbi Marvin Hier’s Los Angeles-based Museum of Tolerance, part of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is building a $150 million branch in Jerusalem. The Museum, whose mission is confronting “global anti-Semitism, extremism, hate and promoting unity and respect among Jews and people of all faiths,” is being built atop part of the Mamilla Muslim cemetery, some of whose burials date to the 11th century. The graves, which may contain the remains of soldiers who fought with Saladin against the Crusaders, are being uprooted to make way for Rabbi Hier’s new museum.
More than a few commentators, including a number of Israelis and some of Israel’s friends in this country, have argued strongly that a Museum of Tolerance built literally upon the bones of Palestine’s indigenous Arab population is
hypocritical, intolerant, and wholly absurd ."
http://www.americanpendulum.com/2010/04/jewish-museum-of-tolerance-desecrates-palestinian-graves/snip
"This tolerance museum to us is a museum of intolerance," said Dyala Husseini, who has ancestors from her family and her husband's family buried in the cemetery. "It is very inhumane, it is very humiliating and it ignores our existence as Palestinian families here in Jerusalem. Our families are here in Jerusalem and have been here for centuries," she said.
Jamal Nusseibeh said one of his ancestors, the former governor of Jerusalem Burhan al-Din al-Khazraji ibn Nusseibeh, was buried in the cemetery in 1432. "It is part of the rich fabric of Jerusalem which always has been a symbol of tolerance," he said. "The fact that anybody could wish to wipe out such a structural part of this fabric in order somehow to promote tolerance is very hard to understand."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/10/jewish-museum-tolerance-muslim-cemeterysnip
"It is disingenuous and misleading for the Weisenthal representatives to claim this was declared a "deconsecrated" cemetery by an Islamic trust in 1964, and that there were no protests when a car park was built over part of it in 1960. Jonathan Cook pointed out in a recent article: "The Islamic trusts have no legitimacy among Palestinian Muslims in Israel, nearly one-fifth of the country's total population, let alone among Palestinians in the occupied territories. The Islamic officials on the trusts are widely seen as corrupt, appointed by the state because of their willingness to do the government's bidding rather than because of their public standing or Islamic credentials."
In any case the avenues for protests by Palestinians are extremely limited, as they impotently view the expropriation of their land and property and the breaches of the human rights using the might and force of the Israeli state and army. In the 1960s much of Israel's Arab population "was under martial law, and in little position to voice opposition". It is well known that the secrecy of decision-making in the planning process, as for the Museum of Tolerance, precludes genuine consultation and objections."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/26/israelandthepalestinians-humanrightssnip
Israel has an obligation to respect and protect the holy sites of its minority religious and ethnic populations, including Mamilla cemetery, under international law, United Nations resolutions and under its own domestic law. Despite Israel’s legal obligations, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favor of construction of the museum and the government has refused to halt the disinterment of bodies and the destruction of the ancient cemetery. For this reason, the petitioners have decided to bring this issue to the international community with the aid of human rights organizations such as CCR
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/03/23/american-civil-rights-org-fights-against-israeli-desecration-of-ancient-cemetery/When I first read the OP I thought I had deja vu but once I remembered the story about the so-called Museum of Tolerance I realized this wasn't deja vu at all. Destroying an ancient cemetary to construct of a "museum of tolerance" is beyond belief, it is contempible. OTOH given that the 911 terrorists committed their act in the name of Isalm, I do think it is insensitive and provocative to build a Muslim cultural centre near Ground Zero (it's a great idea to have a Muslim cultural centre but better someplace else in New York).
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