Mamilla Cemetery is an historic Muslim cemetery located just to the west of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.^[1][2] The cemetery, at the center of which lies the Mamilla Pool, contains the remains of figures from the early Islamic period,^[3] several Sufi shrines and Mamluk-era tombs.^[1] Mentioned by Arab and Persian writers as early as the 11th century,^[4] it was used as a burial site up until 1927 when the Supreme Muslim Council decided to preserve it as a historic site.^[1] Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the cemetery and other waqf properties in West Jerusalem fell under the control of Israeli governmental bodies.^[5]

Name

It is mentioned as an Islamic cemetery as early as the 11th century in Concerning the (religious) status of Jerusalem, a treatise penned by Abu Bakr b. Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Wasiti, the preacher of Al Aqsa Mosque in 1019-1020 (AH 410).^[4] He gives its name as zaytun al-milla, Arabic for "the olive trees of the religion", which Moshe Gil says was "a commonly used distortion of the name Māmillā," along with bab al-milla (meaning, "the door of the religion").^[4]

Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi writes in al-Haqiqa, based on his travels to the region in 1693-4, that, "It is said that its original name is Ma'man Illah and sometimes it was called Bab Illah [Gate to God]. It is also called 'Zeitun il-Milla'. Its name, according to the Jews, is Beit Milo and to the Christians, Babilla. But it is known to the common people as Mamilla."^[6][7] A similar description appears in James Turner Barclay's The city of the Great King (1857) and he gives the meaning of Ma'man Illah (or Ma-min-ullah,as he transcribes it) as "What is from God!"^[8]

History

Islamic rule over Jerusalem began in 638 and persisted for some 1,400 years, interrupted only by the Crusader invasions of 1099-1187 and 1229-1244.^[9] Throughout much of this period, Mamilla cemetery was the largest Islamic cemetery in the city, containing the remains of emirs, muftis, Arab and Sufi mystics, soldiers of Saladin and numerous Jerusalem notables.^[10][9][11] The cemetery is also said to be the burial site of several of the first Muslims, the Sahabah, companions or disciples of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.^[9][12] It covered an area as large as 200 dunams (some 50 acres).^[13]

Prior to the Islamic period, early on during the rule of the Byzantine Empire over Palestine (c. 4th-6th centuries), a church dedicated to St Mamilla was established there and it also appears to have been used as a burial site at this time.^[10] Religious warriors or mujahideen who died in the battles for control over Jerusalem with the Byzantines in 636 and the Crusaders in 1137 were buried in the cemetery,^[11] and during the period of Mamluk rule (c. 12th-15th centuries), most of the area's notable citizens were buried there.^[10] A structure known as al-Kebekiyeh (or Zawiya Kubakiyya), a one room square-shaped building covered with a dome and incorporating architectural materials from the Crusader era was built during this period.^[14][15] It is identified as the tomb of emir Aidughdi Kubaki, a Syrian slave who rose to prominence as the governor of Safed and Aleppo, before his death in 1289.^[14][15]

The cemetery is mentioned by Arab and Persian authors under its various names (see above) throughout the ages. In the 14th century work A'lam, a collection of traditions on the value of prayer in Jerusalem, al-Zarkashi says those buried in the city will avoid fitnat al qabr or "purgatory of the tomb," and for those buried in zaytun al-milla itself, it would be as if they were buried in heaven.^[4]

Mujir al-Din al-'Ulaymi in al-Uns al-Jalil (c. 1496) says, "Who ever invokes God's name while standing between the graves of Ibn Arslān and al-Quraishī [in Māmilā cemetery], God will grant all his wishes."^[16] Al-Quraishi, a famous Sufi mystic said to have miraculous healing powers who immigrated to Jerusalem from Andulasia by way of Fustat, garnered a school of disciples in his new home that numbered some 600 people before his death in 1194. Ibn Arslan, who was buried alongside him some two and a half centuries later, was a charismatic Sufi shaykh whom Muslims from surrounding countries came to visit.^[16] Other notables buried in Mamilla as recalled by Mujir al-Din include two founders of zawiyas in Jerusalem - Nasr ed-din Mohammad, one of the "ten emirs of Gaza", and Shaykh 'Omar, a Moroccan of the Masmoudys, El Modjarrad tribe - and several emirs, such as Ruq ed-din Mankouros, the imperial lieutenant of the Jerusalem Citadel (d. AH 717), Abu el-Qasim, the Governor of Nablus and custodian of Jerusalem and Hebron (d. AH 760), and Nasser ed-din Mohammad, custodian of the two Haram al-Sharifs of al-Aqsa in Jerusalem and al-Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron (d. AH 828), among others.^[2][1]

During the period of Ottoman imperial rule, from the early 16th to early 20th centuries, the cemetery continued to serve as a burial site, and in 1847, it was demarcated by a 2 meter high fence.^[1]

Mandate Palestine period

Burials there ceased early in the period of British rule over Mandate Palestine (1918-1948), following the 1927 decision by the Supreme Muslim Council, who oversaw the administration of waqf properties, to preserve it as a historic site.^[1] By this decision, the cemetery, its tombs, and its grounds were maintained.^[1]

In 1929, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the Mufti of Jerusalem, decided to build the Palace Hotel on what was assumed to be outside the border of the cemetery. While the foundations were being laid, Arab workers uncovered Muslim graves. Baruch Katinka, a Jewish contractor hired to oversee the project, wrote in his memoirs that when the Mufti was informed of the discovery, he said to quietly rebury the bones elsewhere, as he feared Raghib al-Nashashibi, his political rival and the mayor of Jerusalem, would issue a cease work order. As Shari'a law permits the transfer of graves in special cases with the approval of a qadi (Muslim judge), Husayni, acting as head of the Supreme Muslim Council, the highest body in charge of Muslim community affairs in Mandate Palestine, authorized the disinterment. When it was discovered what had happened, rival factions filed a suit against Husayni in the Muslim courts, arguing that he had desecrated ancient graves.^[17][18]

Israeli control

At the time of Israel's assertion of control over West Jerusalem in 1948, the cemetery, which contained thousands of grave markers, came under the administration of the Israeli Custodian of Absentee Property and the Muslim Affairs Department of Israel's Ministry of Religious Affairs.^[19][5][1] By the end of the 1967 war that resulted in the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, only a handful of broken grave markers remained standing.^[1] A large part of the cemetery was bulldozed and converted into a parking lot, and a public lavatory was also built on the cemetery grounds.^[20][21]

In the 1950s, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sensitive to how the treatment of waqf properties would be viewed internationally, criticized government policy towards the cemetery.^[19] Describing vandalism to tombstones and the destruction of ancient tombs by bulldozers cleaning the Mamilla Pool, it noted the site constituted waqf property and lay within sight of the American Consulate.^[19] The ministry said it viewed the situation, which included plans for new roads and the parceling out of portions to private landowners as compensation for other properties confiscated by the state, with deep regret.^[19]

Israeli authorities bulldozed several tombs in the cemetery to establish Mamilla Park (or Independence Park)in 1955.^[14] Two of the largest and finest tombs survived, though the lid of one was overturned when it moved from its original spot.^[14] The other is the Mamluk era funerary chapel known as al-Kebekiyeh (or Zawiya Kubakiyya), now located in the eastern end of Independence Park.^[14][15]

Besides Independence Park, other parts of downtown Jerusalem erected on the cemetery grounds include the Experimental School, Agron Street, Beit Agron, and Kikar Hahatulot ‏(Cats’ Square‏), among others.^[13] The main headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of Trade and Industry was built on cemetery grounds,^[1] and the Customs Department building is said to be located on what was once the site of the chapel dedicated to St. Mamilla.^[22]

In 1992, the Custodian of Absentee Property sold the cemetery grounds to the Jerusalem Municipality, a sale the Mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, said they had no right to make.^[23] The Israeli Electricity Company destroyed more tombs on 15 January 2005 in order to lay some cables.^[1]

Museum of Tolerance controversy

In 2004, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) revealed plans to build a Center for Human Dignity as part of its Museum of Tolerance.^[23][24] Frank Gehry was appointed the architect, and it was the Jerusalem Municipality that offered the SWC the building site located on the cemetery grounds.^[25] Marvin Hier, head of the SWC, said his association was unaware that the site was located on a cemetery and was told by the municipality that the land was owned by the Israel Lands Administration before it was given to the SWC for the project.^[25]

During excavations to prepare the ground for construction in 2005-2006, skeletons were found and removed, prompting the Islamic Court, a division of Israel's justice system to issue a temporary ban on work.^[23][13] Work continued anyway, and the Al Aqsa Association of the Islamic Movement moved to bring the case before Israel's Supreme Court.^[23]

Initially due to be completed by 2009,^[23] the SWC's plan also elicited considerable outcry from some Israeli academics and archaeologists, and work was stayed several times by the courts. After the Supreme Court rejected the Islamic Movement's petition in October 2008, work resumed.^[13] Between November 2008 and April 2009, crews of 40 to 70 people per shift worked in 8-hour stints, 24-hours a day to remove an estimated 1,000 skeletons from the site slated for construction.^[13][26]

In response to critics, Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the SWC, said "Our opponents would have you believe our bulldozers are preparing to desecrate ancient Muslim tombstones and historic markers. Let me be clear: The Museum of Tolerance is not being built on the Mamilla Cemetery, but on an adjacent 3-acre site where, for a half-century, hundreds of people of all faiths have parked in a three-level underground structure without any protest."^[27]

Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University's Department of History, stated that, "contrary to what Rabbi Hier said, that parking lot was built over a cemetery, part of it. And so, the Israeli authorities are basically pushing ahead with the desecration of a cemetery that they have been, unfortunately, slowly nibbling away at for over three decades. We and other families are taking action as a group of families to try and stop this, after other families failed in the Israeli Supreme Court." He also stated that "What happened in the 1960s was that part of the cemetery was paved over for this parking lot. What they have now done is to dig down and disinter four layers, according to the chief archaeologist for the Israeli Archaeological Authority, four layers of graves. There are more probably beneath those, according to his report, which was suppressed in the submissions to the Israeli Supreme Court." ^[28]

Further responding to the outcry from Palestinian and Israeli advocacy groups, the SWC announced in February 2010 that it had discovered a November 1945 article in The Palestine Post that reported on plans of the Supreme Muslim Council and the Government Town Planning Adviser to build a commercial center directly over the cemetery and to transfer remains buried in the cemetery to a separate "walled reserve" to further "the public interest." The Simon Wiesenthal Center accused opponents of its building plans of "sheer hypocrisy,"^[29] and Hier added that this new information, "substantiates much of what Israel's Supreme Court said in its recent ruling: That the Mamilla Cemetery was regarded by many Muslim religious leaders as 'mundras,' or abandoned and without sanctity."^[27]

Gehry resigned from the project in January 2010.^[30] A new design for the museum drafted by Chyutin Architects was approved by the city of Jerusalem in June 2011, receiving an official building permit from the Interior Ministry in July 2011.^[31]

Other developments

Plans to build to Jerusalem Magistrate's Court and the Jerusalem District Court on the cemetery grounds were cancelled by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch in January 2010. The decision followed the discovery of human remains at the site, supporting critics' claims that construction in the area was offensive to Muslims.^[30]

2010 demolition controversy

On 9 August 2010, 300 Muslim gravestones in the cemetery were demolished by Israeli bulldozers in an area US Jewish human rights activists said was very close to the planned site for the Museum of Tolerance. The destruction of 200 graves was witnessed by a reporter from Agence France Presse. Work was briefly suspended while the court heard a stop work petition it rejected, allowing the demolition to continue that same day.^[32]

On 12 August, the Jerusalem city council issued its first official response, in the form of a written statement which said that, "The municipality and the (Israel Lands) Authority destroyed around 300 dummy gravestones which were set up illegally in Independence Park on public land." It also said these "fake" gravestones were not erected over any human remains and were placed in the park in an effort to "illegally take over state land," and that underneath the tombstones excavators found only "plastic bottles, cigarette packets and parts of a sprinkler system".^[32]

Mahmud Abu Atta, a spokesman for the Al-Aqsa Foundation which is linked to the Islamic Movement, denied the city council's claim that new tombs were added illegally. He said that between 500 and 600 tombs had been renovated in total "with the municipality's agreement," that "some of the tombs had to be totally rebuilt," but that "all the tombs that we built or renovated contain bodies."^[32]