Last week, the Jerusalem Post ran a front page story on the decision of the Supreme Muslim Council, in 1945, to turn the Mamilla Cemetery into a business center. The reason the Post gave it such prominence is because it belies the sheer hypocrisy of Palestinian groups and a few of their Israeli supporters and NGOs who, for four years, have criticized the Simon Wiesenthal Center for building a Museum of Tolerance on what was once the City’s municipal car park.
The article appeared in the Palestine Post on page 2 on November 22, 1945, when Jerusalem was still under British Mandate and before Israel came into being. Entitled “Cemetery Into Business Centre,” the article read:
“An area of over 450 dunams <111 acres> in the heart of Jerusalem, now forming the Mamillah Cemetery, is to be converted into a business centre. The townplan is being completed under the supervision of the Supreme Muslim Council in conjunction with the Government Town Planning Adviser. A six-storeyed building to house the Supreme Muslim Council and other offices, a four-storeyed hotel, a bank and other buildings suitable for a college, a club and a factory are to be the main structures. There will also be a park to be called the Salah ed Din Park, after the Muslim warrior of Crusader times.”
“The remains buried in the Cemetery are being transferred to a spot round the tomb of al Sayid al Kurashi, ancestor of the Dajani family, in a 40 dunams walled reserve.”
“In an interview with ‘Al Wihda,’ the Jerusalem weekly, a member of the Supreme Muslim Council stated that the use of Muslim cemeteries in the public interest had many precedents both in Palestine and elsewhere. He quoted the cases of the Bab al Sahira (Herod’s Gate) Cemetery, which formerly stretched down Saint Stephen‘s Gate; the Jaffa Cemetery, which was converted into a commercial centre and Queen Farida Square in Cairo, which not long ago was a cemetery.”
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