OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC)– Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) continued on Friday morning to excavate and remove more graves in the historical Islamic Ma’manullah cemetery in Jerusalem the Aqsa foundation for endowments and heritage said after demolishing dozens of graves in the cemetery less than a week ago.
One of the foundation’s crews “arrived at the scene at 9:30 am and stood at the [site of] the crime committed by the IOA: that dozens of graves in several areas of the remaining part of the Ma’manullah cemetery were excavated” the foundation explained in a statement Friday.
“All of the evidence on the ground in the cemetery indicates that the IOA is planning to continue its crime against hundreds of graves in the remaining part of the cemetery” the foundation added.
“This crime came after the Aqsa foundation and cemetery keepers Mustafa Abu Zuhra and Sami Rizqullah Abu Mukh proceeded to restore and maintain hundreds of graves threatened by extinction because of Israel’s accumulated attacks over more than 60 years” the report went on to say.
Aqsa foundation chairman Zaki Igbaria denounced the crime holding the Israeli government responsible.
For his part Zahi Nujeidat spokesman for the Islamic movement in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1948 said: “We will not give up never give in and will not withdraw from the war against the Ma’manullah cemetery.”
“We say to the brutal Israeli authorities: if you think that by uprooting the graves you would uproot history you are mistaken. The Islamic and Arab identities of Jerusalem are stronger than your excavations and empty minds” he added.
Israeli bulldozers destroyed 15 graves at the site last Wednesday. Fawaz Hassan of the Aqsa foundation and grave keeper Hajj Zuhra were present at the scene of the crime and interfered in the operation. Verbal quarrels resonated between them and the Israeli municipality police and special forces. The hour-long excavation operation was foiled after 15 graves were demolished.
The Ma’manullah cemetery is reportedly the oldest and largest Islamic cemetery in Jerusalem. Several key Islamic figures over the centuries are buried there.
