…and you thought the cartoon thing was really bad.
The Simon Weisenthal Center is building a Jerusalem branch of it’s “Museum of Tolerance.” In order to make way for this museum, “Israeli archeologists and developers have continued excavating the remains of people buried at the site – which was a cemetery for at least 1,000 years” – yes, that’s one-thousand years; it’s not a typo. It appears they will tolerate a lot, just not the bodies of Muslims who have been buried there…
The museum has been designed by the uber-famous Frank Gehry and is costing $150 million. Do you think they got a “deal” on the site since it was, you know. Anyway, it’s disgusting. Read the whole unbearable story in the Independent
Thanks to Shaden picking this up.
After reading this I went to the SWC website to find out about the museum. The first thing you see at the site is the “Snider Social Action Institute’s” dig at this cartoon:
Look, I’m not about to defend the crazed rantings of Iran’s sophmoric President, but look at that cartoon! It’s pointing out the double standard being played out in papers and online throughout Europe: no European paper would have asked illustrators to draw cartoons dealing with the Holocaust in the same way they drew cartoons dealing with Muhammad. I actually think it’s fairly accurate.
There are nations that have laws saying you cannot write or speak in denial of the Holocaust. Name the European country where it is illegal to defame the Prophet of Islam. So it is true that freedom of speech in Europe is not limited in regards to Islam, but is limited in ragards to the Holocaust.
But forget all this. Shouldn’t we be looking for ways to get along and come to understand better those people we don’t know much about instead of tallying up the who’s-more-offended-today score?
Maybe the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem will teach us that.
February 15, 2006
Unlike the wholesale destruction of Jewish holy sites and cemetaries by Muslims all over the Arab world ( a fact nowhere mentioned by you), there is good news to be found.
At least the SWC is sensitive enough to move the remains- a courtesy,as I meantioned, not always on the Muslim agenda when it comes to religious intolerance.
Would you care to discuss that?
February 16, 2006
Provide me with links to reports about the “wholesale destruction of Jewish holy sites and cemetaries by Muslims all over the Arab World” and I’ll be able to mention it. I doubt you can point to anything coming close to “wholesale” however.
In addition to the “Museum of Tolerance” being built on a Muslim cemetary (the gross irony of which you either miss or have no problem supporting) the Israeli government has been working on building a road through the ancient Muslim cemetary in Hebron for nearly a year. Maps are available with the report by the Land Research Center.
This kind of thing is disgusting and inflammatory and it’s not wrong to point that out.
March 10, 2006
In your response to links regarding the destruction of Jewish holy sites and cemeteries, I can provide you with an eyewitness account.
An ancient Jewish cemetery sits on the Mount of Olives hillside overlooking the Old City. Thousands of tombstones can be seen from a considerable distance away.
In 1959, when Jordan was still in control of the Old City in Jerusalem and adjoining properties, King Hussein of Jordan decided that driving around the Mount of Olives was just too ardous a task for the Jordanian government. So King Hussein built a two lane road that cuts right through the cemetery. Not only did he violate hundreds of graves in the process, he used shattered tombstones as part of the pavement. How do I know? I was there last week and saw it with my own eyes.
As the previous respondent noted, any time human remains are found, the Israeli government offers to rebury the decendent at no charge to the family. Of course, as pointed out in the Weisenthal e-mail (the portion of which you failed to mention), the Arabs are not interested in taking up the Israeli government’s offer because that would lend legitimacy to Israel’s right to exist.
In another portion of your original e-mail, you stated that, and I quote, “There are nations that have laws saying you cannot write or speak in denial of the Holocaust.” Please provide the names of those nations and the law or statute that does not allow writing or speaking in denial about the Holocaust. I am not aware of any nation that does not allow writing or speaking. In fact, since Mel Gibson’s father publicly proclaimed his opinion that the Holocaust did not happen, it opened the floodgates from all over the world from like-minded people who say the Holocaust was a myth.
I look forward to your reply.
March 10, 2006
I’m not sure what you are talking about here. My original post was about the desecration of Muslim graves in the construction of a “museum of tolerance.”
First of all, I see no proof that “the Israeli government offers to rebury the decendent at no charge to the family.” Just because someone said it on my website in a comment does not make it so. There are uncountable numbers of times that the Israeli government takes things from Palestinians and does not compensate them. Houses are demolished, land is stolen, settlements are built right on top of what used to be farmland and villages and Palestinians are left with nothing. And of course, hovering in the background, is the original sin of the 1948 war when the refugee population was created. Those people have never received a thing from the Israeli government. Given that they are still alive it seems particularly disgusting that the Israeli government makes such a show of being generuous to the remains of Palestinians.
Secondly, Holocaust denial did not start with Mel Gibson’s father, it has been going on since the end of the Holocaust. I’m not gonna do your research for you and track down every law in Europe that outlaws critical speech of the Holocaust, but I will point out the David Irviing trial that recently concluded. He’s is perhaps the world’s best known denier of the Holocaust and he was recently put in jail in Austria because of it. Austria has made it illegaly to deny the Holocaust happened. While the claim is rediculous, the abridgment of free speech is much more insidious. Even though he’s in jail, he has been barred from talking to people from his cell.
Third, you seem to think that I questioned whether Jewish graves have ever been destroyed and I, of course, do not question that. But what is there that I can do about an event that happened in 1956? Nothing. Meanwhile, in the name of Jews around the world – including mine, Israel is right now desecrating an ancient Muslim grave in Jerusalem in the name of “tolerance.” It is disgusting and it should be stopped and Jews should be the ones screaming for it to be ended.
Finally, “the Arabs are not interested in taking up the Israeli government’s offer because that would lend legitimacy to Israel’s right to exist” is just wrong here. They are upset because their cemetary is being desecrated without their consent for a project that they are not involved in. And let’s be honest, they have every right to be upset just as you are upset about the historical desecration of a Jewish cemetary.
This entire episode is yet another example of Israel claiming they want peace and an end to the conflict and then working in directly the opposite direction. This is a blatently provocative action that has obvious and predictable repercussions. In anycase, decades from now when commissions of reconciliation are formed and there are public airings of these traumas, this will be seen for exactly what it is: crass colonial racism.
*On a side note, they are “Palestinians,” not simply “Arabs.”