A restauranter has built a café over land that previously housed the Maaman Allah cemetery in West Jerusalem.
Maaman Allah cemetery is the oldest and largest Muslim graveyard in the country, and one believed to contain the remains of some of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad.
The mover has sparked condemnation from the Muslim community, and the Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage told Al Jazeera that the construction of the site was part of an Israeli plan to demolish “everything related to Arabic Islamic history on this land”.
“This is a sanctified location, a holy place for Muslims, and it’s been a cemetery for 1,400 years. It’s impossible to treat a holy place like this,” said Amir Al Khatib, the director of the organisation.
“All these projects are being constructed over the skulls of Muslims buried in the cemetery.”
Mamilla Cemetery is believed to date back to the seventh century, and is also the resting place of many combatants from the Crusades, both Muslim and Christian, but burials ceased after 1948, but the area has recently been transformed into a park, and renamed ‘Independence Garden’.
“It’s not just the loss of the cemetery that angers the Palestinians. The selling of alcohol is seen as a grave violation of the sanctity of the Islamic site,” Al Jazeera‘s Elias Karram, noted from Jerusalem.
The restaurant is just one part of a plan that includes the construction on the site of 192 housing units, a 480-room hotel, commercial spaces, parking and other elements, according to Israel’s Haaretz.
Construction began in 2011, but after skeletal remains were found, the Islamic Movement, which advocates Islam among Israeli Arabs, and other entities, filed a petition to the High Court of Justice.
The work was interrupted but soon resumed after the court eventually granted permission.
“All these projects are being constructed over the skulls of Muslims buried in the cemetery … cemeteries are supposed to be protected in all religious beliefs and international conventions,” added Amir Al Khatib.
“They have built a hotel, a garden, a pool, and now the cafe – all on top of graves.”
In 1986 the Israeli government declared to UNESCO that “no project exists for the de-consecration of the site and that, on the contrary, the site and its tombs are to be safeguarded”, in response to an investigation into development projects at Mamilla.
However, the current government seems to be taking a different stance, and Khatib asserts that of 20 hectares belonging to the historical location, only two hectares remain as part of the cemetery.
Since 2010, the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which has fought against Israeli discrimination towards Palestinians, said the construction “has resulted in the disinterment of hundreds of graves, and the whereabouts of the countless human remains that have been disposed of are unknown”.
Ironically, a ‘Museum of Tolerance’ is also being built on top of the cemetery, and is set to open in 2017.
The Israeli Supreme Court decided in 2008 that the cemetery had been abandoned for decades, thereby losing its sanctity. It also ruled that continued construction could be allowed because the site of the museum had been a car park for nearly 50 years.
Nadim Nashif, the director of the Haifa-based Baladna Association for Arab Youth, told Al Jazeera that the Mamilla Cemetery issue resonates across all sectors of the Palestinian community.
“It doesn’t matter where you go in this country, Israel is thoroughly trying to remove the historical evidence of Palestine, and broadly, [all Palestinian citizens of Israel] feel alienated,” Nashif said.
“The erasure of Palestine has been a tactic of the Israeli government from day one. It holds no respect for history, and what has been happening in the Mamilla Cemetery proves this.”
Khatib meanwhile told Al Jazeera that plans to send letters of complaint to international and Israeli authorities, which he said are required by their own laws to respect holy sites.
The Israeli government has laws in place, including the Protection of Holy Places Law and Section 170 of the Penal Law, which forbid the desecration or demolition of any place held sacred to any religion.
“Today, Jewish cemeteries all over the world are well-maintained. If someone defaces even one of the graves, it’s a huge matter that is quickly resolved,” he said.
“We want the Israeli government to treat all holy places – whether Muslim, Christian, or Jewish – as equal.”