World

Tolerance Obstacle

The Museum of Tolerance site in downtown Jerusalem.

Wiesenthal Center faces challenges

over building museum in Israel.

site in the seventh century.
In response, the High Court has
appointed former Chief Justice
Meir Shamgar as a mediator.
Shamgar has a month to find a
resolution on the topic.
Muslims aren't the only ones
opposing the project — the build-
ing plan is also unpopular among
many Israeli Jews.
After years of bureaucratic
wrangling and vocal opposition
from influential Jerusalemites, the
road seemed finally clear last May,
when a gala ceremony marked the
groundbreaking on the three-acre
campus. Ready were architect
Frank Gehry's plans for seven
buildings, including two museums,
a library, education center, per-
forming arts theater and interna-
tional conference center.
California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and the then
mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert,
lauded the new center's goal of
promoting civility and respect
among Jews and between Jews and
Muslims.

Tom Tugend

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Los Angeles

ince its beginning in
1977, the Simon
Wiesenthal Center has
become a major player on the
international scene, but it now
faces its most daunting challenge.
At risk is its Center for Human
Dignity - Museum of Tolerance in
the heart of Jerusalem.
For the past five years, Rabbi
Marvin Hier, the Wiesenthal
Center's founder and dean, has
poured his formidable energies
and negotiating skills into the $200
million project as the capstone of
his career. But now the project is
running into a roadblock:
In a petition to the Israeli High
Court of Justice, lawyers for two
Muslim organizations asserted
that thousands of Muslims who
died during the Crusades of the
12th and 13th centuries were
buried at the site where the center
is being built. They also argue that
associates of the prophet
Mohammed were interred at the

S

30

March 2 e 2006

Muslim Remains

Last month, Olmert reiterated his

el YS

support for the ruling. "This is an
essential project for Jerusalem, a
landmark that will change the face
of Jerusalem forever. I stand
behind it 100 percent." But in
recent weeks, workmen excavating
the site unearthed bones and par-
tial skeletons from the old Muslim
Mamilla, or Maman Allah, ceme-
tery. There is agreement that
Muslims have been buried at the
site, possibly five layers deep, for
many centuries.
Rabbi Hier said, "Never in a mil-
lion years would we have under-

taken this project if the govern-
ment of Israel or the Jerusalem
municipality had told us that we
were building atop a Muslim
cemetery. We would have rejected
the site out of hand."
Rabbi Hier said he was assured
by local and national authorities
that there were no legal impedi-
ments to building on the site, now
mainly a large parking lot.
Also on the site is a four-level
underground garage, excavated
and built 30 years ago, with no
protests from Muslim religious
authorities, according to Rabbi
Hier.
Even earlier, in 1964, when the
now-defunct Palace Hotel stood on
part of the parcel, the highest
Muslim religious council in
Jerusalem ruled that the cemetery
had been inactive for such a long
time that it had lost its sacred
character and could be used for
public purposes, Rabbi Hier said.
Lawyers for the Wiesenthal
Center presented three possible
compromises at the Supreme
Court hearing: build a dignified
monument to the ancient ceme-
tery, refurbish a nearby modern
Muslim cemetery or rebury the
bones at another site, all at the cen-
ter's expense.
Israeli politicians have criticized
the plan. Likud Party member
Reuven Rivlin, the speaker of the
Knesset, asked,"Why, for God's
sake, does a house of tolerance
need to be built on a Muslim
cemetery? It goes against logic."
He added: "My parents are

buried on the Mount of Olives. If
someone decided they needed to
be moved to build a museum of
tolerance, I'd be very angry"
The Israel office of the Anti-
Defamation League has appealed
to the Wiesenthal Center for a
"pause" in construction, but
retracted the call after the High
Court appointed Shamgar.
On the Muslim side, Irkrima
Sabri, the grand mufti of
Jerusalem, has petitioned UNESCO
to declare the disputed area an
international historical site.

Local Criticism
One factor in the confrontation is
the long-standing hostility to the
project by influential segments of
Jerusalem's citizenry.
Among the early skeptics were
officials at Yad Vashem, Israel's
Holocaust memorial, who argued
that there was no need for a com-
peting Holocaust museum. After
lengthy discussions with Yad
Vashem, the Wiesenthal Center
agreed that its new museum would
not deal with the Holocaust.
Rabbi Hier is not about to quit
on the project, which has already
cost $10 million.
"I have absolute faith that the
Center for Human Dignity will rise
in Jerusalem, but only in the pres-
ent location',' he said. "We've gone
through all the required processes
for more than five years, all the
architectural and building plans
are for this specific site, and we've
gone too far for any changes." El

Answering Israers Critics

The Charge:

Israel is coming down too hard on the Palestinians, following their recent
parliamentary elections. After all, even though Hamas won a majority of the seats, President Mahmoud
Abbas is committed to peace, disarmament and negotiations.

The Answer:

While Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gives moderate speeches when
talking in English, he failed to give such a message to Hamas when its legislators were sworn into office last
month in Ramallah. He could have stressed that the parliament must abide by earlier agreements with Israel
and to the international community. He could have required Hamas to disarm and dismantle its military
infrastructure, and reject violence as a strategy and tool. And he could have re-affirmed the commitment to
recognize Israel and reject a "one-state solution" that would see the Jewish state eliminated from the Middle
East. Unfortunately, he said none of these things.

— Allan Gale, Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit