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And the Jewish Museum of Tolerance and Center for Human Dignity.
By Sami Jamil Jadallah
Jerusalem, that Holy City dear to all three Abrahamic religions and dear to Jews, Christians and Muslims, must not be left alone for the Israeli, Palestinian or American Jewish leadership to decide. It is too important for the world to have the likes of Netanyahu, Lieberman, and Sharansky to decide the future of the city. Jerusalem must be an open, united, City For All. All Israeli and Jewish actions in the city in the last 40 years makes Israel and American Jewish leadership unfit to decide who and who should not live in the city. The actions of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to build a Museum of Tolerance on the ruins of an ancient cemetery is nothing but an insult to all humanity and it shows the reckless and insensitive behavior of the leadership of the American Jewish community toward other non-Jewish communities in the City of Jerusalem. Israel and the Jews alone are simply unfit to manage the city. The Christians and the Muslims have as much rights in the city of Jerusalem as the Jews. We want a City for All.
Last year about this time (November 15-17) the beautiful city of Istanbul hosted the first Al-Quds International Institution (Jerusalem Forum) with more that 2,000 delegates from all over the world attending the conference with the objective of making sure that Jerusalem will always have a Muslim and Christian presence and that such communities will never be excluded from the city as a direct result of the continuous Jewish war on Jerusalem.
The conference initiated by the International Jerusalem Establishment in cooperation with the Turkish Organizations for Endowments and Federations of Public Societies. This is indeed the first such efforts on the part of Muslims and Middle East Christians to stand up and make sure they are present and will always be present in Jerusalem.
For over 60 years ever since the founding of Israel, Jerusalem was a divided city, divided by a wall that separated Israeli West Jerusalem from Arab East Jerusalem which was administered by Jordan until the 67 War with the resulting transfer of the entire city of Jerusalem, East and West under the total control of Israel. Now Israel with total control over Jerusalem is building too many walls, dividing the city into too many quarters something unseen since the dark and middle ages.
Now Israel not satisfied with its infamous Apartheid Wall, and with the financial support of the Los Angles based Simon Wiesenthal Center is building a "Museum of Tolerance and Center for Human Dignity" of all places atop an ancient Muslim Cemetery. The Government of Israel, the City of Jerusalem and of course the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Rabi Marvin Heir could not find a more suitable place than a Muslim cemetery to build a Museum of Tolerance. I only wonder what would happen if any European government decided to build any thing, on top of a Jewish cemetery, I am sure all hell will break lose with the president or chancellor forced to resign, because the Jewish community will never tolerate the desecration of a Jewish cemetery, but to our friends at the Simon Wiesenthal Center it is absolutely ok to desecrate a Muslim cemetery and dedicate the structure to Tolerance and Human Dignity. Well it seems that our Jewish friends in Los Ageless have no tolerance of others and have no respect of human dignity of others and are dedicating a building as a show case. Perhaps this is the new and modern interpretation of Judaism as it is practiced today!
It is true that there was a separation wall between East and West along the armistice line of 48 and it is true that Israelis were not permitted to visit and worship at the Wailing Wall; however Jordan never planned and carried out anything that will erase Jewish history in Jerusalem. Unlike Israel which is making sure that its 67 War does not stop its assault on Jerusalem and never stop making sure that it erases all Muslim and Christian presence in the Holy City including the Muslim cemetery to build its Museum of Tolerance and Center for Human Dignity.
The Palestinians especially under Arafat PLO never gave Jerusalem any importance and when Arafat and the PLO had tens of billions in its coffers never took any concrete steps to help the Arabs, Christians and Muslims, to withstand the on going assault on their presence in Jerusalem and never had a well funded plans to offset the well organized ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem of its Muslims and Christians citizens, which culminated in the ethnic cleansing of more than 100,000 Arab citizens who were forced to leave the city where they lived for centuries to allow room for new immigrants with suspected Jewish origin to move in and take their place.
Neither the PLO nor the PA took any steps to give Jerusalem the importance and the priorities needed to offset the Christian-Zionist and Israeli Jewish efforts to make the city "Jewish" at the exclusions of Arab Christians and Muslims. With the very limited support Arafat gave to the late Faisal Hussaini, there was never the kind of financial support to offset the billions being spent by Israel and it American Jewish sponsors. Arafat later on withdrew the carpet from underneath Faisal Hussaini when he sensed Husssaini may be a potential and competitive leader.
Jerusalem as a city does not belong to the Palestinians and Israelis only and it will be a fatal mistake for the city if the present leadership of both Fatah and Hamas or for the Israeli leadership of Likud, Labor or Kadima to took total control and manage the affairs of the city. The Palestinians and from what we have seen of the leadership so far, are simply unfit and incompetent to manage the city as a city for all. Israel is no different, it proved over the years that is simply unfit and could never be trusted to manage the city for all.
Future forums on Jerusalem must take into considerations that this city is not a Palestinian or an Israeli city; it is a city of the world. It is city for the Jews, for the Christians and for the Muslims and the world’s interest is not limited to holy and historical building but goes beyond toward the city and its unique culture and civilizations.
