Construction of the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem
Construction of the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem
MOT stands for Museum of Tolerance, the only museum of its kind in the world. It is the educational arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an internationally renowned human rights organization dedicated to promoting respect and mutual understanding, through education, community partnerships , and civic engagement.
Following a unanimous decision taken by its Board of Trustees of the Simon Wiesenthal Center on at its November 5, 2009 meeting, it was announced that its Museum of Tolerance project in Jerusalem is being redeisigned to better reflect today’s world economic realities and will shortly name the new architect for the redesign.
The Museum is not being built on the nearby Muslim cemetery of Mamilla, but on an adjacent site which, for nearly a half-century, served as Jerusalem's municipal car park where every day hundreds of Jews, Christians, and Muslims parked their cars. Electric, cable and sewer lines were laid below the ground.
• The site that was given to the Wiesenthal Center by the government of Israel and the Jerusalem municipality previously served as the City's municipal parking lot for more than 40 years.
• During that time, Muslim groups never protested that the parking lot was once part of an ancient burial site.
•In 1964, the highest Muslim religious authorities declared that entire area, including adjacent Independence Park, a 'mundras' - an abandoned, ancient cemetery where public facilities may be built.
• The Simon Wiesenthal Center initiated a town plan to build a museum on the parcel allocated to it by the Government of Israel and the Municipality of Jerusalem and the City of Jerusalem issued a building permit to construct a museum. For five years during the public planning process, the Center for Human Dignity was the subject of hearings at open City Council meetings, through notices published in both Hebrew and Arabic newspapers, and the architectural model was on public display at City Hall. At no time throughout that entire public process, did a single person or organization come forward to object to the use of the grounds on the premise that the site was a Muslim cemetery.
• Of crucial importance is the fact that Muslims themselves, both in the Palestinian territories and throughout the Arab world, have built roads, commercial centers and public buildings on their own cemeteries. It is preposterous to hold the Center for Human Dignity to a higher standard than the Muslims adhere to themselves.
• All of Jerusalem is layered in memory and history and it is not unusual for construction work in Jerusalem, a 3,000-year-old city, to encounter archeological artifacts and bones. That is why there is a special department called the Israel Antiquities Authority, charged with the special handling of any archaeological artifacts or remains that are found. Since the commencement of excavation, the project has been under their supervision, and every instruction has been followed. Most important, the Antiquities Authority, which is an independent body, supported the technical solutions that the Simon Wiesenthal Center filed with the Supreme Court.
• Given Jerusalem’s history, it is safe to assume that many prestigious academic and civic institutions may, in fact, be built on ancient remains. Human dignity demands that we respect and treat with reverence these remains of ancient civilizations without impeding the right of Jerusalem, or any other city, of building a future. If cities were not allowed to be built on the relics of previous civilizations, there would be no modern-day Rome, Jerusalem, or Cairo.
Source: The Simon Wiesenthal Center
MOT stands for Museum of Tolerance, the only museum of its kind in the world. It is the educational arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an internationally renowned human rights organization dedicated to promoting respect and mutual understanding, through education, community partnerships , and civic engagement.
Following a unanimous decision taken by its Board of Trustees of the Simon Wiesenthal Center on at its November 5, 2009 meeting, it was announced that its Museum of Tolerance project in Jerusalem is being redeisigned to better reflect today’s world economic realities and will shortly name the new architect for the redesign.
The Museum is not being built on the nearby Muslim cemetery of Mamilla, but on an adjacent site which, for nearly a half-century, served as Jerusalem's municipal car park where every day hundreds of Jews, Christians, and Muslims parked their cars. Electric, cable and sewer lines were laid below the ground.
• The site that was given to the Wiesenthal Center by the government of Israel and the Jerusalem municipality previously served as the City's municipal parking lot for more than 40 years.
• During that time, Muslim groups never protested that the parking lot was once part of an ancient burial site.
•In 1964, the highest Muslim religious authorities declared that entire area, including adjacent Independence Park, a 'mundras' - an abandoned, ancient cemetery where public facilities may be built.
• The Simon Wiesenthal Center initiated a town plan to build a museum on the parcel allocated to it by the Government of Israel and the Municipality of Jerusalem and the City of Jerusalem issued a building permit to construct a museum. For five years during the public planning process, the Center for Human Dignity was the subject of hearings at open City Council meetings, through notices published in both Hebrew and Arabic newspapers, and the architectural model was on public display at City Hall. At no time throughout that entire public process, did a single person or organization come forward to object to the use of the grounds on the premise that the site was a Muslim cemetery.
• Of crucial importance is the fact that Muslims themselves, both in the Palestinian territories and throughout the Arab world, have built roads, commercial centers and public buildings on their own cemeteries. It is preposterous to hold the Center for Human Dignity to a higher standard than the Muslims adhere to themselves.
• All of Jerusalem is layered in memory and history and it is not unusual for construction work in Jerusalem, a 3,000-year-old city, to encounter archeological artifacts and bones. That is why there is a special department called the Israel Antiquities Authority, charged with the special handling of any archaeological artifacts or remains that are found. Since the commencement of excavation, the project has been under their supervision, and every instruction has been followed. Most important, the Antiquities Authority, which is an independent body, supported the technical solutions that the Simon Wiesenthal Center filed with the Supreme Court.
• Given Jerusalem’s history, it is safe to assume that many prestigious academic and civic institutions may, in fact, be built on ancient remains. Human dignity demands that we respect and treat with reverence these remains of ancient civilizations without impeding the right of Jerusalem, or any other city, of building a future. If cities were not allowed to be built on the relics of previous civilizations, there would be no modern-day Rome, Jerusalem, or Cairo.
Source: The Simon Wiesenthal Center
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