Museum of Intolerance?

The Simon Wiesenthal Center may be going too far by trying to build a museum on a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem.

LAST WEEK, Israel's High Court of Justice ordered Los Angeles' Simon
Wiesenthal Center and the municipality of Jerusalem to explain why they
should be allowed to construct a new Museum of Tolerance on the site of
an ancient Muslim cemetery.

On
the surface, it's a straightforward enough question. But it's really
about more than the fate of one cemetery and whether it should be
preserved. What is at stake is the nature of both people's claims,
Palestinian and Israeli, to Jerusalem.


The site of the museum is in the heart of downtown Jerusalem, on a
parking lot next to the city's Independence Park. Designed by architect
Frank Gehry and kicked off in 2004 with a visit by California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the museum (a sister, of sorts, to the one of
the same name in Los Angeles) seems, at first glance, like a welcome
initiative. In a region wracked by intolerance, what better way to
improve the chances for peace than to teach people about different
cultures?

But
the museum itself became a test case for tolerance when bulldozers
digging its foundation unearthed human remains last year, and the
project has been mired in legal disputes ever since. Even though
archeologists and historians knew that the site was on top of an
ancient cemetery — parts of which are visible just adjacent to the site
— spokespeople for the Jerusalem municipality claimed that the
discovery of remains came as a surprise.