Israel continues demolition of Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem

For the ninth day in a row, Israeli forces are continuing to bulldoze the Yusufiya cemetery near Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem, local media reported yesterday.

The head of the Islamic Cemeteries Care Committee, Mustafa Abu Zahra, said in a statement that occupation municipality crews had continued “works of Judaization and vandalism in the cemetery as they bulldozed the vicinity of its entrance, to potentially establish a public garden.”

Abu Zahra warned of the “continued attacks and violations by Israel at the cemetery,” noting that the occupation authorities tightened their siege on the cemetery “after working for a week to construct a wall separating the Martyrs’ Monument and the cemetery.”

The Yusufiya cemetery was established at the beginning of the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, but it was restored and expanded during the reign of Salah Al-Din Al-Ayyubi. After the city was occupied in 1967, the Jerusalem municipality took possession of the section that includes the graves of martyrs.

Israel seeks 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.

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