Israel demolishes Muslim cemetery near Al Aqsa Mosque to build park
The Israeli authorities have bulldozed parts of the Yusufiya cemetery near Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to build a park.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Israeli police have tightened the siege on the Yusufiya cemetery near Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, while the municipality and the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority have been demolishing parts of the cemetery and tombstones since Oct. 25.
On Oct. 28, the Israeli authorities fenced the walls surrounding the cemetery and installed surveillance cameras, and on Oct. 29, Israeli police fired tear gas to prevent dozens of Jerusalemites from visiting their dead.
The Jerusalem municipality has been working overtime to demolish more parts of the cemetery since Oct. 17, when the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court rejected a request submitted by the Committee for the Care of Islamic Cemeteries in Jerusalem to suspend bulldozing the cemetery and exhuming graves.
The Israeli authorities are seeking to turn this part of the cemetery, which includes the Martyrs’ Monument where Palestinians and Jordanians who fought in the 1967 war are buried, into a public biblical park, around the walls of the Old City.
