The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) on Monday continued to destroy parts of the centuries-old Muslim Cemetery of Yusufiya in the Old City of Jerusalem for the eighth consecutive day amid ongoing Palestinian protests.
According to local sources Jewish settlers working for the Israeli municipality in Occupied Jerusalem and the Israel nature and parks authority work day and night under police protection on bulldozing and leveling the northern part of the cemetery and preparing it for the building of a Talmudic park.
Police forces also prevented Jerusalemite citizens today from entering the cemetery and taking photos or filming what was happening inside it.
The IOA in Jerusalem recently started moving ahead with a plan to build a Jewish “national park” set to open in mid-2022 over parts of the cemetery which spans more than 14 dunums of land.
In recent weeks settlers working for the Israeli municipality and the Israel nature and parks authority exposed human remains during excavations causing outrage and unleashing continual protests and prayers at the site.
Since then Palestinians have been increasing their presence at the graveyard including those going to protect their dead relatives and sometimes confronting police forces which responded with tear gas stun grenades physical beatings arrests temporary bans on individuals from visiting the cemetery.
In 2014 the municipality prevented Jerusalemite citizens from burying their relatives in the cemetery’s northern area and removed 20 graves of Jordanian soldiers who were killed in 1967.
Later in December 2020 it demolished a stairway and a fence at the cemetery.
