Israel continues to raze Palestinian graves in East Jerusalem

The Israeli occupation authority today resumed the destruction of the historic Muslim cemetery of Al-Yusufiya near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Palestinian Inforamtion Centre reported.

Head of the Islamic cemeteries committee Mustafa Abu Zahra said that an Israeli municipal crew escorted by police forces stormed the cemetery and began bulldozing and digging, destroying Palestinian and Arab graves.

He added that several local residents intervened, but police forces expelled them from the yard and prevented them from entering it to protect the graves of their relatives.

This comes days after the Israeli municipality demolished part of the cemetery, exposing human remains buried in a section where Arab soldiers killed during the 1967 war were buried.

The municipality seeks to turn the cemetery into a park and paths as part of its plan to build multiple Talmudic parks and trails for Jewish settlers and tourists around the walls of the Old City.

In December 2020, the municipality demolished a stairway and a fence at the cemetery.

In 2014, it prevented Jerusalemite citizens from burying their relatives in the cemetery’s northern area and removed 20 graves of Jordanian soldiers who were killed in 1967.

READ: Israel expels head of Islamic Cemeteries Committee from Jerusalem