issues a protest in Guardian against the Museum."We call on the Jerusalem municipality, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and the Israeli authorities not to allow this architectural time-bomb to proceed." Among the signaturesare; Charles Jencks, Richard MacCormack, Neave Brown, Abe Hayeem, Haifa Hammami, Hans Haenlein, Cezary Bednarski, Kate Mackintosh, Suad Amiry,Shmuel Groag, Beatriz Maturana, Walter Hain, Ian Martin.
4 Comments
in light of the fact that contentions over rights, history, politics and identity have already had the legitimacy of the project tried in a national supreme court -- seems like the ethics of gehry's work on this project is getting little air play, compared to the amount of discussion that followed top tier firms doing work in countries like china, esp. oma and cctv...
That's because we control the media
The Response?
Museum of Tolerance site was a car park
Your letter from Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (November 15) allows your readers to believe that the Simon Wiesenthal Centre is building its Museum of Tolerance on the Mamilla Cemetery. It is not. It is building the Centre for Human Dignity on the site that, for nearly 50 years, was Jerusalem's car park (with six levels of underground parking), serving the diverse community of Jerusalem where, every day, hundreds of Jews, Christians, and Muslims parked their cars. Electrical cables and sewerage lines have also been laid there.
The reason the supreme court unanimously ruled in our favour was that the court noted that, for nearly half a century, no Muslim group or individual ever protested at the existence of a car park. Further, before the project began, the model was displayed at City Hall and newspaper ads announcing the project were published in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Again - not a word of protest. As the court said in its ruling: "The importance and benefit of realising the plan to build the Museum of Tolerance in the centre of the city of Jerusalem are very great. The Museum of Tolerance embodies an ideal of establishing a spiritual centre that will spread a message of human tolerance between peoples, between sectors of the population and between man and his fellow-man."
Rabbi Marvin Hier
Founder and dean, Simon Wiesenthal Centre Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles
You report that David Miliband said he wanted to show "solidarity" with the people of Sderot (November 18). Fine, but what about showing solidarity with the people of Gaza? The Israeli blockade has caused food shortages, particularly affecting the health of women and children, resulting in high rates of anaemia and stunted growth. Some of this damage is irreversible and the siege constitutes collective punishment.
Janet Green
London
Maybe there wasn't wall to wall and below 'car park' as Rabbi Hier depicts the site in defense of his project.
see pics#598-607
*pictures were via simple search in google with key words "Mamilla Cemetery"
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