Museum of Tolerance - Jerusalem PETITION

The text below is for a letter calling for a stop to the project of the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem.
The letter below will be sent to the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israeli Goevernment. If you wish to add your name use this link:  http://apjp.org/email-us/

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MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE –Jerusalem – PETITION
23 November 2008

A recent judgement by Israel's Supreme Court will allow the construction of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's “Museum of Tolerance”, designed by renowned US architect Frank O. Gehry, over a Muslim heritage cemetery of great historical importance in the centre of Jerusalem. It is a blow to peaceful co-existence in an already divided city.

This project, started in 2006, had been frozen due to public outcry and legal challenge, most especially from Muslim religious leaders and the Israeli Islamic movement with the backing of orthodox Jews concerned about disturbing graves. The site in Mamilla, near Jerusalem's Independence Park, is on disputed burial land taken over by the Israel’s Land Administration in 1948, whose ownership is claimed by the Islamic authorities.

To pursue this divisive project that will include "two museums, a library-education center, a conference centre and a 500-seat performing arts theatre, would seem highly insensitive, a statement of Israel's hegemony over the Palestinians, rather than any expression of 'tolerance'. All the architecture in the world cannot engender harmony on the basis of trampling over people’s rights and history. It is inflaming passions in an already combustible Middle East, and will push any peace accord further off the horizon.

Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine calls on the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, the Jerusalem municipality and the Israeli authorities not to allow this architectural time-bomb to proceed.

Charles Jencks, Architect & Historian
Sir Richard MacCormack, RIBA
Will Alsop, RIBA
Neave Brown, RIBA
Eva Jiricna, RIBA
Abe Hayeem, RIBA, Chair APJP
Haifa Hammami, Architect, Secretary APJP
Hans Haenlein, RIBA
Cezary Bednarski, RIBA
Suad Amiry, Architect, RIWAQ, Ramallah
Kate Mackintosh,RIBA
Shmuel Groag, Architect, Jerusalem
Beatriz Maturana, Architects for Peace, Australia
Louis Hellman, RIBA, Cartoonist
Jake Brown, RIBA
Walter Hain, RIBA
Ian Martin, Writer
Mike Gwilliam, MRTPI
Dr. Jim Berrow, Architectural Historian
Anil Korotane, Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory (FAST)
Martin O’Shea, RIBA
Isabel Camacho Garcia, Architect, Spain
Karin Pally, Planner, LA
Zahira Nazer, Architect, Urban Planner
Fahmi Salameh, Architect, Palestine

John Murray, Architect,UK
John van Rooyen, RIBA
John Lynes, Engineer, CPT Hebron
Dena Qaddumi, Architect, NY
David Berridge, RIBA
Malcom Hecks, RIBA, France
Gail Waldman, RIBA
David Berridge, RIBA
Mustafa Chaudhary, Architectural Designer,UK
Ahmad Barclay, Environmental Designer,UK
Kelvin Bland, RIBA
Faisal Khan, RIBA
John Hodge, RIBA
Asif Khan, MRTPI
Nicholas Wood, RIBA
Sara Wood, Classicist
Wade Sowman, Planner, UK
Steve Fox, Architect, BVI
Yael Gordon, Architect, BVI