Israel has built over Palestinian cemeteries since 1948. The ongoing process has led Kefah al-Abbasi to sleep on her husband's grave to protect it from imminent demolition. Read more here:
Omar Jamal recalls running as fast as he could to save his grandfather’s grave as Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem began demolitions at Al-Yousufiya Muslim Cemetery.
“When I reached the cemetery, I could not believe what I saw there. There were several bulldozers at the site and heavy security presence. Plans to build a park on the bodies of the dead makes no sense,” Jamal told TRT World. Since the demolition order came through, al-Abbasi and her daughter have been taking shifts at the cemetery to ensure that his grave is protected at all times.
It is one of Jerusalem’s endowed properties and the burial site of historical Islamic figures, prominent scholars, and hundreds of Palestinians/Jordanians killed during the 1967 war. Over time, the properties were delegated to the Israel Lands Authority, state bodies like the Jewish National Fund, or placed in private hands.
In the same cemetery, the Leonardo Plaza hotel, a Jewish religious school, and the ‘Museum of Tolerance’ were built. An Insurance building and several landfills were also erected over the eastern side of the cemetery. "In 1965, Israel launched what it called its national 'Land Leveling Project' in Palestine by the participation of 20 national Israeli associations, including its army, aiming to erase all traces of Palestinian life there,” Abdel Razek Al-Matani, an archeologist and PhD in Islamic Archeology of Palestine Land, explained.
Abu Zahra, head of the Preservation of Islamic Cemeteries in Jerusalem, said the demolition of cemeteries are part of a larger Israeli policy to target centuries-old Islamic sites. The Hague Regulations of 1907 state that the occupying power is only allowed a very limited use of the occupied population’s public property .
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