The Israeli occupation authorities resumed on Monday the digging of a historic Muslim cemetery in the occupied city of Jerusalem, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Mustafa Abu Zahra, Head of the Committee for the Preservation of Islamic Cemeteries in Jerusalem, told WAFA that the Israeli municipal crews and officers of the so-called Nature Protection Authority continued to level parts of the cemetery, which lies adjacent to the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Watch: The Israeli municipality continues to level parts of Islamic Al-Yusufiyah Cemetery, which lies adjacent to the walls of #Jerusalem’s Old City. It plans to bulldoze it to build a "Bible Trail", a string of national parks in the south of the Old City.#FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/jvquTgsEB1
— Wafa News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) October 25, 2021
Over the last two weeks, the Israeli occupation authorities demolished part of the cemetery over the weekend, exposing human remains buried in a section where Jordanian soldiers killed during the 1967 war were laid to rest, WAFA reported.
The Israeli occupation municipality of the occupied Holy City plans to bulldoze Al-Yusufiyah Cemetery to build a “Bible Trail”, a string of national parks in the south of the Old City of Jerusalem.
An Israeli occupation court upheld the Israeli demolition of Al-Yusufiyah Cemetery, one of the oldest Muslim cemeteries in occupied Jerusalem.
The Israeli occupation municipality started bulldozing the cemetery last week, exposing human remains. pic.twitter.com/TxjNqKSqj3— Koh Ken (@ybOk6jec26PQlIG) October 20, 2021
In December 2020, the Israeli occupation authorities demolished the wall of the cemetery adjacent to the al-Asbat Gate and removed its archaeological stairs in addition to the stairs leading to the martyrs’ graveyard.
In 2014, the occupation authorities prevented burial in the cemetery’s northern area and removed twenty graves of Jordanian soldiers who were martyred in 1967 in what is known as the Cemetery of the Martyrs and the Monument of the Unknown Soldier.
(WAFA, PC, Social Media)
