JEWS, CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS UNITE TO REPAIR MOUNT ZION CEMETERIES
Christian Today
March 2 2015
Lucinda Borkett-Jones 02 March 2015
Christians and Muslims living on Mount Zion have been the target
of numerous hate crimes in recent years, but representatives from
all three religions are taking a stand against the intolerance by
repairing the mount’s graveyards.
Last week a Greek Orthodox Seminary on the mount was the site of an
arson attack in which one of the church’s bathrooms was set on fire. A
wall was also sprayed with anti-Jesus graffiti, but no one was injured
in the attack. Other incidents have seen gravestones smashed and people
spitting at priests, and there has been little police intervention.
Before Pope Francis visited the Holy Land last May interfaith tensions
increased in response to fears that the government would give the
Vatican control of David’s Tomb, a building believed to be the site
of the Last Supper. At the time there were demonstrations and calls
for attacks on Christians living on Mount Zion.
According to Haaretz, posters calling for action against “the transfer
of David’s Tomb to the Christians” have appeared again in recent days.
The posters say: “King David’s Tomb is in danger and you’re sleeping?
Prepare for a global battle that will shake the entire world. Now,
in the run-up to the election, the left-wing parties have promised,
with help from Christian foundations, to help transfer David’s Tomb
to the Christians.”
In response to this intolerance, some Israelis have been working with
churches on Mount Zion to preserve gravestones that have been damaged,
whether by vandalism or the effects of time.
The Protestant cemetery on the mount was the first to be restored in
the initiative funded by the Society for the Preservation of Israel
Heritage Sites, but the interfaith group plans to work on graveyards
for all three religions.
Two years ago dozens of gravestones in the Protestant cemetery were
smashed, including those of a number of notable figures who lived in
Jerusalem in the 19th and 20th centuries.
“We did this to correct, at least a little, the bad impression left
by the authorities’ failure to deal with the hate crimes,” architect
Gil Gordon, who oversaw the repair work, told Haaretz. “They [the
police] haven’t caught and indicted a single person, and the mayor is
ignoring it. If you like, we’re doing this to rescue Israel’s honour,
so they’ll know there are also people who care.”
Now that stonemasons have worked on the headstones, Jewish and
Christian volunteers have begun cleaning up the cemetery. Next week
the volunteers will begin work on the Muslim cemetery, and following
that, a Jewish burial ground on the mount.
Discussions are also taking place about restoring the cemetery at
the Armenian Church, with the support of the Dajanis, a prominent
Palestinian family who are the custodians of David’s Tomb and have
also cared for Mount Zion’s cemeteries.
Historian Dr Yisca Harani, one of the project’s initiators, said the
initiative was set up after a number of crosses in the Protestant
cemetery were broken.
She added that the volunteers came to help “not just to show
solidarity, but to show commitment and try to remind people that
Jerusalem is a multicultural city where we all live, and will continue
to live, side by side.”
After the work on the cemeteries has been completed, there are plans
to create a tourist route that will include sites from the different
religions and cultures on the mount.