Israel Seizes Old Muslim Cemetery Next to Al-Aqsa
"For years Israel has been confiscating land which belongs to the cemetery to use it for touristic routes," Mustafa Abu Zahra, who heads a committee maintaining Islamic cemeteries in occupied East Jerusalem, told Ma’an news agency on Wednesday, September 2.
"Today, the (Israeli) occupation wants to designate new borders for the Islamic cemetery, but its borders and walls were made hundreds of years ago."
He added that the Israeli authorities "claimed they were putting a court decision into effect," but he said that they had given no evidence of a court ruling backing their action.
Abu Zahra said that there are graves lying in the land that was seized, adding that the land belongs to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Endowment, which also oversees the adjoining Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam.
The Israeli moves started two weeks ago when Israeli forces set up barbed wire fence around a 7,000 square meter stretch of land next to the Bab al-Rahma cemetery belonging to the al-Husseini and al-Ansari families.
Bab al-Rahma, meaning Door of Compassion, runs along the eastern wall of Jerusalem's Old City and has been in use for more than 1,000 years.
It is considered one of occupied East Jerusalem’s most important historical Islamic properties.
Israel occupied the holy city in the 1967 war and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community or UN resolutions.
Since then, Israel has adopted a series of oppressive measures to force the Palestinians out of the city, including systematic demolition of their homes and building settlements.
Al-Quds is home to Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which includes Islam's third holiest shrine Al-Aqsa Mosque, and represents the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
There are more than 164 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, eating up more than 40 percent of the occupied West Bank.
The international community considers all settlements on the occupied land illegal.
