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Israel conducts excavations works in the Islamic cemetery of Yusufiya at the eastern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem
In October 2017, Israel Municipality in Jerusalem carried out works that would change landmarks in the Yusufiya cemetery located on the eastern wall of the Old City. As a result, part of the cemetery wall was demolished. The road linking Wad Al-Juz, Al-Suwwana and Al-Tur neighborhoods to Al-Aqsa mosque was closed to pedestrians and worshipers via barbed-wires barriers, claiming that the municipality is implementing a developmental plan for the site like other roads surrounding the Old City.
It is believed that the municipality seeks to seize part of the area and develop it to be converted to the so-called national parks (Talmudic Gardens).
The head of the Islamic Cemeteries Committee in Jerusalem, Mr. Mustafa Abu Zahra, said that what the municipality of the occupation does is a clear attack on an Islamic land of endowment, and that the municipality is implementing a scheme to serve colonial plans and not to develop the place as it claims.
In the past, the committee had made several requests to the municipality of the occupation to carry out some developmental plans in the place but the municipality did not care about this. Ironically, the municipality used part of the place as waste dump.
The occupation authorities- through the plans so-called "developmental"- seek to deface the Islamic features of the place and attempt at Judaizing it in order to fit the Hebrew narrative. All Israeli bodies functioning in Jerusalem work hard to achieve this aim. Parts of some cemeteries were confiscated to open a park. Moreover, Muslims were banned to bury their dead in many cemeteries in the city.
This case study is part of Kan'aan Project
