[ 17/03/2013 - 09:57 PM ]
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- A Jerusalemite Foundation revealed that there are Israeli plans to implement 7 Judaizing projects targeting the historic Islamic cemetery of Ma'manullah, in the occupied city of Jerusalem.
Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said, during a press conference on Sunday, that the occupation authorities have already seized an area of 160 dunums of the cemetery's land and seek to seize the entire cemetery in order to turn it into public commercial and tourist facilities.
It pointed out that one of the seven Judaizing projects scheduled to be implemented aims to destroy a pond built in the cemetery, in addition to the establishment of a Jewish museum in the area.
Part of the cemetery's land will be allocated for the establishment of car parking, and another part for the establishment of a park for dogs.
For his part, head of the Restoration of Muslim graves Committee in Jerusalem, Mustafa Abu Zahra, said: "The Israeli institution moved the bones of dead Muslims to unknown places, then stepped up its procedures in the cemetery by establishing parks for dogs and toilets in this place that we consider one of the sanctities. All this falls within the context of the attempts to obliterate Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem."
Ma'manullah Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest Islamic cemeteries in the Palestinian territories, as it has an area of two hundred dunums.
Israeli authorities have seized the cemetery's land then turned the greatest part of it into a public park after demolishing the graves. The tombstones still exist on 25 dunums only of cemetery's land.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/d...62frtkujYsY%3d