Museum of Tolerance - or Provocation?
The Museum of Tolerance is a project organized by the Simon Wiesenthal Center (MoT), to build a world class center in Jerusalem to teach the value of well, tolerance. A controversy has been brewing for sometime around its location, which is to be on the site of a former parking lot that was also a Muslim graveyard in the past.
The protagonists include Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and director of the Wiesenthal Center, the Muslim and Palestinian leaders of Jerusalem, the Israeli High Court, the Jerusalem municipality, progressive groups in Israel that support the Palestinian Jerusalemites, and the U.S. based international donors and supporters of the MoT.
Durragham Saif, the lawyer who brought the Islamic Court petition on behalf of three Palestinian families, Al Dijani, Nusseibeh and Bader Elzain, all of whom have members buried at the cemetery, said: "It's unbelievable, it's immoral. You cannot build a museum of tolerance on the graves of other people. Imagine this kind of thing in the [United] States or England. And this is the Middle East where events are sensitive. If this goes ahead in this way it is going to cause the opposite thing to tolerance." [from an article that appeared in The Independent.]
Supporters of the Museum, and the proposed site, say that Muslims have allowed construction on cemeteries before; that the site was not used as a cemetery for 45 years, but as a parking lot; and that previous Islamic authorities approved. Why then, should this particular project be forbidden? One answer, is that Palestinians in East Jerusalem are using spurious religious arguments to deny Israelis, Jews, and supporters of tolerance to have their way. They are spoilers without merit.
Opponents say that this was a historic cemetery, and that corrupt Islamic leaders are guilty of allowing a parking lot to be constructed there. It is time to honor it as a religious and historic site.
Both sides do a poor job of explaining the underlying issue. The site of the (now under construction) MoT is part of Mamila, an area nestled between the western wall of the Old City and the 1949 armistice line that separated Israel from the West Bank until 1967. For Israel, the city is unified, end of story. For the Palestinians, East Jerusalem will one day be the capital of a Palestinian state. This slow moving battle over Jerusalem has been going on since 1967, without interruption. Mamila is one of the last prime pieces of real estate along the 1949 armistice line, and any major construction will influence the cityscape - forever.
The Wiesenthal Center is guilty of a massive provocation in this battle over the future of Jerusalem. Under the pretense that it's just real estate with no "religious" significance, they seek to establish what amounts to a propaganda center for a particularly self serving version of tolerance. This bone being forced down the throat of East Jerusalem's Palestinian Arabs represents another defeat for the cause of real tolerance, which would involve - on some level - recognition that Jerusalem is a holy city for Muslims, a city of great political and emotional importance for Palestinians, and an international symbol of both religious fanaticism and bloody conflict.
Could it be that they don't understand? That the Wiesenthal folks are just slow or blind? I decided to look up information on the Chairman and Co-Chairman to see what I could find. And it turns out that all three are contributors to Republican politicians who represent the right wing of the Jewish political spectrum. They are at the core of the wealthy and powerful Jewish right wing, which is unrepresentative of the U.S. Jewish community, but manages to appear as though they are thoroughly mainstream.
- Larry Mizel, Chairman. Link to political contributions from opensecrets.org.
- Nelson Peltz, Co-Chairman. Link to political contributions from opensecrets.org.
- Ed Snider, Co-Chairman. Link to political contributions from opensecrets.org.
In the Wiesenthal Center's case, this is especially problematic. It was founded on the legacy of an important author, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who helped the world better understand that event. As an icon of Holocaust education, Wiesenthal has been at the forefront of efforts to prevent genocide, address human rights concerns and antisemitism around the world. Were the Israeli-Palestinian conflict absent from the equation, very little could be said to criticize this important work.
However, we have seen the growth over the decades of an ideological apparatus that connects the Holocaust to support for Israel, and then again to support for Israel's policies, and then again in support of Israel's apologists around the world. This cheapens the legitimate goals of Holocaust education and the struggle against antisemitism by harnessing it to the horse of Israeli interests, which at the moment include the occupation of the Palestinian people.
There is a modicum of ideological unity among the American and Israeli right wing. They support using the charge of anti-Semitism to silence those who criticize Israel "the wrong way". They support political efforts aimed at preventing other states from pressuring Israel to change any of its policies. Finally, they wage ideological battle against other Jews who they accuse of being in league with "enemies of Israel and anti-Semites" when they participate in efforts to influence Israel's policies in a pro-peace direction. This ideological praxis is what many refer to as "Holocaust Judaism." They behave this way, even when they pay lip service to the need for peace and a two-state solution.
This isn't a top secret plan for world domination; this is good organizing. It's open, insofar as all the players know what's going on. But it's secret, in that most of this work takes place behind the scenes. The controversy around the MoT is an opportunity to pull aside the veil and take a look. This is what I see:
- Wealthy, Republican older Jews raise money for nonprofits working (formally) for human rights, civil rights, social justice, international relations, Holocaust education and tolerance.
- The nonprofits provide a liberal cover for engaging in right-wing Zionist apologetics, and helping to silence opponents of Israeli occupation, and keeping a natural sympathy for the Palestinians away from mainstream Jewish organizations. It's not always done directly - but it gets done.
- To the extent that the issue of Israel and the Holocaust intersect, it is for the purpose of demonizing critics of Israel with the broad brush of antisemitism. Or, if those critics are Jewish, with the brush of naivete, youth, self-hatred or extremism.
- The same demographic also supports AIPAC and right wing causes in Israel and the United States.
The Museum of Tolerance is an extension of these strategies from New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. into the heart of Jerusalem. It can be difficult arguing against the project based only on the headlines. While the Israeli left gets it right away how the slogan "never again" can be misused to support the occupation and human rights violations, American liberals might be cowed into silence.
And there's another problem. On some level, the opposition to the project finds it hard to communicate around the complexity of the issues, and are quick to turn to a reflexive anti-Israel stance, never mind the nuances. There are weaknesses to the formal legal arguments used in past court challenges. There had to be, given the way any legal system operates. This is not really about legalisms. This is a heart issue. [And some opponents, undoubtedly, are extremists of various stripes. I'm not ignoring them, I'm just not going to treat them as the main issue.]
My heart tells me that Palestinians are justified in defending their continued presence in Jerusalem, physically and psychically. They are justified in trying to put the brakes on major developments that alter the cityscape away from its Arab, Palestinian, Muslim and Christian heritage. It's true that Jerusalem is also Jewish, Israeli and modern - and it should be - but this is a political moment that calls for tzimzum, a Jewish term for reducing your presence to make room for the divine. Limiting the imperial impulse to make Jerusalem more Jewish and more Israeli opens up more space for a Jerusalem that is more peaceful and more tolerant.
On political, moral and religious grounds, I call upon others to join me in demanding that construction of the Museum of Tolerance be halted.
Join peacemakers around the world and take action now.
Further Resources:
- IPCRI's Gershon Baskin's article from the Jerusalem Post opposing the MoT.
- Rabbi Hier defending the Museum's location and comparing Gershon Baskin with Hamas and Hizbollah.
- Description of the Muslim Cemetery at Mamila from 2004
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