NAZARETH (PIC)– The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage (AFEH) said that the Israeli occupation has started building a hotel on the ruins of the historical Qashala cemetery next to the Grand Mosque in the occupied city of Yaffa.
Dozens of graves have been bulldozed after the Israeli occupation antiquities authority dug the graveyard affording no respect for this historical Islamic site.
The Qashala cemetery is part of the Barreya cemetery which was used by Muslims during the Mamluk period then during the Ottoman period.
A statement by AFEH on Thursday said that representatives of the foundation made a field visit to the cemetery on Thursday and found out that Zionist firms had already started with wide scale preparations for the construction of a building including moving large bulldozers and construction plant onto the site bulldozing large areas digging for foundation columns and starting construction works.
AFEH added that according to information available to it the hotel being built on the ruins of the cemetery is going to consist of a number of floors underground and a number of floors above ground which means the complete destruction of the historical cemetery and will also have a negative impact on the Grand Mosque.
