Under Armed Escort - A Visit to the World’s Largest Jewish Cemetery

NRG..
harhazeisim.org..
12 March '13..

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Naomi Tsur recently made a moving journey to Har Hazeitim to visit the grave of her grandfather. What would be a common event for most mourners was anything but typical for Tsur – under Police escort, it was the first time she paid her respects to the gravesite since 1967. Fear of frequent attacks en route to and inside the world’s largest and oldest Jewish cemetery played a role in the decades which elapsed since Tsur’s original visit 46 years ago, not allowing the Deputy Mayor to remember the site of the actual tombstone.

The final resting place of Tsur’s grandfather was identified by the Israeli branch of the International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeitim. Founded by New York City businessmen Abraham and Menachem Lubinsky, whose Shoah-surviving parents are buried on Har Hazeitim, the two dedicated brothers have made it their personal mission to preserve and safeguard the cemetery where Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Nobel Laureate Shai Agnon, American Zionist leader Henrietta Szold, reviver of modern Hebrew Eliezer Ben-Yehudah, religious Zionism founder Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and three Biblical prophets are buried, among countless other notables of the Jewish People.

AfterNaomi Tsur’s long-awaited return to her grandfather’s grave, she was then guided by Harvey Schwartz and Jeff Daube of the Committee to other areas of the extensive cemetery where more than 150,000 Jews have been buried in a period stretching over 3,000 years.

Desecration of graves and illegal construction

Tsur’s deeply personal pilgrimage took place against the backdrop of the present-day struggle that exists at Har Hazeitim.

Tsur witnessed illegal building of Arab homes on cemetery grounds, a mosque expansion in defiance of a yet-to-be-executed Jerusalem municipality demolition order and rampant garbage dumping that desecrates the holy site. The Deputy Mayor also learned about widespread grave desecrations and continuous violence directed against cemetery visitors. Those en route to the Cemetery and visitors onsite have suffered from stone-throwing incidents, Molotov cocktails and violent attacks by the local Arab population. Two United States Congressmen visiting Har Hazeitim were subjected to a stoning attack and, on a separate occasion, a near-lynching of a groom trying to visit his mother’s grave on the way to his wedding was narrowly avoided.

Shragai - The Mount of Olives under attack

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
18 May '12..

In the winter of 1948, driving to the Mount of Olives became dangerous because the route passed through Arab neighborhoods. The British allowed the Jews to hold burials on the mountain only twice a week, at night, and only with an armed escort. When the security situation worsened in the spring, burials on the Mount of Olives ceased entirely, and the burial societies were given plots of land in western Jerusalem.

Sixty-four years later, with the Mount of Olives under Israeli sovereignty, there is no escaping the painful comparison. The incidents that have taken place on the way to the Mount of Olives over the past several months are reminiscent of the British Mandate era. Almost every week, Jews are attacked on their way there. Families who wish to visit the graves of their loved ones or hold funerals there need armed security guards. As a result, the public has made its choice: many families who had formerly wished to hold funerals on the Mount of Olives now choose cemeteries in the city’s western section.

An Israel Hayom survey reveals that since the year 2000, approximately 3,500 Jewish burials have taken place on the Mount of Olives — a drastic drop of about 50 percent compared with the first decades following the 1967 Six-Day War. According to the cemetery council, demand for burial in the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, the largest and most important Jewish cemetery in the world, is declining after 3,000 years. Taxi drivers from all over Israel sent a letter to the police commissioner stating that at certain hours of the day, the drive to the Mount of Olives endangers their lives, since vehicles belonging to Jews are pelted with stones and boulder fragments from both sides of the road. Several drivers have stopped taking families to memorial services there. One driver, Pinhas Saidoff, declared that he "won’t risk my life or the lives of my passengers."

"What is happening on the way to the Mount of Olives is a disgrace. If Jews were to throw stones at Arab cars, the authorities would put a stop to it quickly enough,” Saidoff said.

After a long period of dormancy, the authorities have finally started to wake up over the past few years, perhaps not a moment too soon. In an attempt to prevent vandalism and gravestone desecration, 123 cameras placed throughout the Mount of Olives transmit images to centers run by the Housing Ministry. Soon, the cameras will also be connected to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and to the new police station on the mount. As yet, no cameras have been mounted on the road where most of the Jews have been attacked — the road that connects Mount Scopus to the Mount of Olives and goes through the A-Tur neighborhood. Therefore, the police cannot ensure the safety of Jews driving to or from the mount.

Mt. of Olives? Yes, we have a problem.

02 May '12..







Anybody visiting the Mount of Olives in recent years will recognize quite well the abysmal situation confronting all but the most intrepid who arrive in the vicinity. This needs to stop, and stop now, not tomorrow.

This from Melanie Lidman/JPost:

“I can’t take you to the Mount of Olives, it’s 10:15 a.m.!” I threw up my hands in exasperation when the third taxi driver in a row refused to take me to the new police post on the mount.

“Fine,” I told him. “Take me to the Hebrew University and I’ll walk from there.”

Activist organizations have cited an increase in stone-throwing attacks against Jewish vehicles trying to get to the cemetery on the capital’s Mount of Olives in the past year, but never was this fact more visible than on Wednesday morning when I couldn’t find a cab to take me to... a police station.

“You have to understand, at 10:30 a.m. the students at the boys’ school will go out for recess and they’ll just throw stones at us for fun,” the driver explained apologetically as we headed toward the university.

Kushner - From Israel: On the Mount of Olives

Arlene Kushner..
27 February '12..

Before beginning my discussion about the Mount, I am delighted to be able to share good news:

Some days ago, I sent out an e-mail about a 16 month old boy -- Rafael Zakkai Avraham ben Yakira Avigael -- who had a very rare cancer in the spine. The situation sounded dire and I asked for prayers. The news now is that the child was misdiagnosed: the tumor in his spine is benign. The parents were very cautious about accepting this new diagnosis prematurely, but have now had confirmation from two labs. Baruch Hashem.

What this means is that this poor baby will not need intense chemotherapy, and the tumor will not metastasize. But he will still require complicated surgery on his spine. The prayers are working, writes the mother -- please, keep praying!!

~~~~~~~~~~

Now to the Mount of Olives (Har HaZeitim), which is on the periphery of eastern Jerusalem.

Found on the Mount is the oldest cemetery in Jewish history, dating back 3,000 years and containing some 150,000 graves. The earliest burial caves date from the First Temple; the cemetery is still actively in use today.

Lubinsky - The Evolving Security Scene in East Yerushalayim: A Unique View from Inside the Palestinian Neighborhoods

Menachem Lubinsky..
Har HaZeitim Preservation..
03 January '12..




Jerusalem

For the past year and a half, I have become a student of security issues that relate to preserving the 3,000 year-old holy cemetery of Har Hazeisim. This resulted from my involvement with the International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeisim, a broad-based group my brother Avrohom founded. His initiative came following a critical report in May 2010 by Micha Lindenstrauss, Israel’s State Controller, criticizing successive Israeli governments for neglecting Har Hazeisim for 43 years (at the time) since its capture in the Six-Day War of 1967. (I am actually writing this on the yahrzeit of my father Chaim Pinchas Lubinsky zt”l, who is buried on Har Hazeisim along with my mother Pesa o”h).

Despite a dramatic improvement in the past year, including the installment of 80 surveillance cameras, thanks in large measure to the committee, graves are still frequently randomly destroyed and visitors and mourners occasionally stoned, albeit with far less frequency than before the committee swung into action. There are still areas of the legendary mountain that are without cameras, a small mosque near the main entrance of Har Hazeisim (and just several feet from the gravesite of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin and his wife Aliza) was being significantly expanded despite a Stop Order from the Municipality, police deployment while promised is still sorely lacking, and broad support for a new bill imposing stiff new penalties for violence perpetrated in cemeteries is still elusive. In addition, there is concern for the continued budget allocation specifically designated for Har Hazeisim.

Most of the violence perpetrated on Har Hazeisim emanates from the three Arab neighborhoods that hug the sprawling mountain: Ras al Amud, A-Tor, and Silwan. The struggle to preserve the Jewish character of East Jerusalem extends even to the name as the Arabs consider Har Hazeisim, despite its obvious Jewish historic significance, as part of the Ras al Amud neighborhood. The controversial mosque is also known as the Ras al Amud Mosque. Arab vehicles and schoolchildren routinely use the cemetery as a thoroughfare, not to speak of the thriving drug trade in some areas.

While the committee has focused on the kedusha of Har Hazeisim and the kovod hameis of the nearly 135,000 people who are buried there, including three Nevi’im, many see the struggle for the Jewish character of Har Hazeisim as central to the larger battle of keeping Yerushalayim united under Jewish control, a pronouncement often made by Israeli leaders but not always accompanied by action. It is unconscionable to most Jews that Har Hazeisim should not be accessible to any Jew who wishes to daven there. How could it be that a state that prides itself in providing access to all religions should tolerate Jews being stoned as they seek access to the holy Har Hazeisim? Shouldn’t Jews in their own homeland at least have the same right as Christians and Muslims.

Lubinsky - Is Change Finally Coming to Har Hazeisim?

Menachem Lubinsky..
Har Hazeitim Preservation..
03 January '12..

It was to say the least a disturbing sight on a bright Sunday morning on Har Hazeisim in Yerushalayim. As I turned to say Kaddish marking the yahrzeit of my father (Harav Chaim Pinchas Lubinsky zt”l), I faced an entire row of destroyed kevorim, apparently by boulders hurled from above. The scene on a level just above where my parents lie was one of more destruction, including hollow gravesites with their matzeivos strewn about. Although the area was repeatedly targeted by Arab hooligans, it is the first time that it came so close to the graves of my parents. Turning away from the kevarim were Arab houses, one with a newly posted flag of Hamas. (I learned later that Hamas was on a flag campaign in East Jerusalem.) In fact, during an earlier tour of nearby Arab neighborhoods with Ateret Kohanim, some of it in an armored jeep, I noticed several Hamas flags, perhaps on par with the number of Palestinian flags.

The destruction that had apparently occurred a month or so ago, explained the officials that I subsequently met with, was because there was still no coverage by the rapidly growing number of surveillance cameras being installed on Har Hazeisim, thanks to the efforts of the International Committee for Har Hazeisim, headed by its founder Avrohom Lubinsky (my brother). While some 80 of a planned 137 cameras were already in place, 60 were functioning with the others still undergoing tests. Officials promised that within a few weeks some of the additional cameras would be installed on the Kollel Polen section as well as the area that includes the maareh where three rabbeyim of Ger lie, also frequently targeted by Arabs.

In the newly built fortified command center with its high tech monitors, three security agents monitor the screens 24/7 for any signs of abnormal activity. Just last week, the camera captured an Arab in his late 20’s sitting on a step and conversing on a cellphone. He soon rose, moved over to a nearby grave, and labored to push a headstone to a nearby valley where it shattered in pieces. Obviously preparing for his next act of wanton destruction, the security people in the monitoring station summoned the Har Hazeisim security team who within minutes pounced on the thug, holding him until police arrived. In early December, he was sentenced to 3 months in prison. What was perhaps most disturbing is that he told investigators that he was paid NIS 1000 by the handler with whom he had apparently been conversing prior to perpetrating his act. The police were ostensibly investigating who the handlers were.

Daphne Anson - Desecrating The Jewish Cemetery On The Mount Of Olives: The Way It Is, & Was

Daphne Anson
21 December '11

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/12/desecrating-jewish-cemetery-on-mount-of.html

On his blog Israel Matsav has posted a video (hat tip: reader Shirlee) of an Arab vandal caught red-handed uprooting and destroying a tombstone in the Jewish cemetery on Har HaZeitim, the Mount of Olives, the most ancient burial ground in the world that is still in use, and of course one in which scores of renowned sages repose. (That of the prophet Zachariah can be seen in this photograph, right foreground.) As Israel Matsav's blog notes, the vandal (who received a three-month gaol sentence) had been paid to carry out the task of desecration, and the incident is by no means isolated; even mourners are sometimes physically attacked.


Uploaded by LoneStarJLM on Dec 19, 2011


Hooliganism on Har HaZeitim was rampant during the Jordanian occupation of the Old City from 1948-67. And what's more, it was state-sponsored.

In 1954 the Israeli Government wrote to the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold, telling him that it had (to quote the London-based Jewish Chronicle, 16 July 1954, which carried a photo of damaged tombstones):

"[C]onclusive proof of the extent to which the destruction and spoilation of the cemetery proceeded.

More than half of its area had been stripped of all signs of its consecrated character... Tombstones had been completely destroyed or removed and some part of the grounds showed marks of ploughing. Some of the missing stones are said to have been used in the construction of a cinema in Jericho.

Jews from at least 28 countries, including scores of sages and holy men, lie buried in this ancient and historic cemetery..."

With the liberation of the Old City from Jordanian rule in June 1967, the full extent of the abuse suffered by the cemetery became apparent.

Kushner - US State Department True to Form on the Mount of Olives

Arlene Kushner
frontpagemag.com
20 December '11

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/20/us-state-department-true-to-form-on-the-mount-of-olives/



Is the US State Department capable of getting it right when addressing deprivation of human rights endured by Jewish people? Its conduct with regard to the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem gives serious pause.

On the slopes of the Mount of Olives (Hebrew: Har Hazeitim), in eastern Jerusalem, lies a 2,500 year-old Jewish cemetery, bearing a legacy of enormous import and sanctity. Among those buried in its 1,500 Jewish graves are prophets, Zionist leaders, rabbis, writers, and an Israeli prime minister.

From 1948, when eastern Jerusalem was captured by Jordan, until its liberation by Israel in 1967, no Jews were permitted at the site; horrendous damage was done to the cemetery during those years. Although restoration has been taking place since 1967, until recently action to protect the site had been insufficient. That is now changing as the Israeli government has become more vigorously involved and the International Committee for the Preservation of Har HaZeitim has been established.

Yet vandalism still regularly occurs at the cemetery. Arabs drop cinderblocks from the top of the Mount down the hillside, in a frequently successful effort to crack headstones. Additionally, mourners and those visiting graves of loved ones are often harassed by Arabs throwing stones and require an armed Israeli security escort. Not infrequently, those mourners and visitors are American citizens.

Has Israel abandoned the Mount of Olives?

It seems inconceivable that nothing can be done to deter predations on the slopes where Jews have been interring their dead for more than 3,000 years.


JPost Editorial
15 May '10

Lost among more sensational findings last week were the state comptroller’s lamentations over the sad state of the Mount of Olives Cemetery – the Jewish people’s most ancient burial ground and final resting place to a pantheon of religious, spiritual, cultural and national paragons, including even the prophets Zechariah, Haggai and Malachi.

While noting with approval moves begun in December by the Prime Minister’s Office to supervise security at the cemetery, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss excoriated ongoing neglect by successive governments: “Repair work proceeds at a snail’s pace, maintenance standards are inadequate, security is sorely lacking and vandalism and criminal acts continue unabated, accentuating the danger that funds and labor already invested at the site will go down the drain.”

These admonitions were ironically underscored on the very day the nation marked the 43rd anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification. As parades and celebrations were underway elsewhere, busloads of funeral participants were stoned near the cemetery. Four mourners needed medical care. Those who made it inside found 23 headstones smashed in one section alone.

It seems inconceivable that nothing can be done to deter deliberate unremitting predations on the mountain slopes where Jews have been interring their dead for more than 3,000 years. Its proximity to the city and the Temple Mount, as well as the traditional proscription against burials within Jerusalem’s walls, made the Mount of Olives hallowed already in First Temple days.

The chain had been unbroken, save for 19 years of Jordanian occupation (1948-67), during which the cemetery was callously and systematically desecrated in blatant violation of the Hashemite Kingdom’s pro forma undertakings to preserve holy places. The destruction was unbridled and premeditated. Ancient tombstones were torn out to be used as latrine floors, urinal walls and pavement stones. The Intercontinental Hotel and Jericho Road were constructed over graves. Garbage was regularly dumped on the tombs.

After Jerusalem’s liberation, burials were resumed but dignity, good order and safety weren’t restored. Though public figures such as former prime minister Menachem Begin, author Shai Agnon, poet Uri Zvi Greenberg, rabbis Shlomo Goren and Zvi Yehuda Kook – among numerous others – asked to be laid to rest there, their choice failed to bring even minimal proper upkeep and security to what doubtlessly is a cemetery of historical continuity and significance unmatched anywhere in the world.

AS UNDERSCORED by the state comptroller, the cemetery is visited regularly by Arab vandals, whose favorite target is unaccountably the Gerrer Rebbe’s tombstone, but Begin’s has also been damaged over the years. They sometimes smear human feces on the tombs and deluge them with household rubbish and construction debris. Markers have been daubed in tar and paint, hate graffiti has been scrawled and gravestones have been hammered and shattered.

(Read full editorial)

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