Burying their heads in the sand?

NIS 84 million has been allocated to restore graves at the Mount of Olives Cemetery, but no adequate security at the site.

By PEGGY CIDOR
Restoration at Mount of Olives cemetary 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Restoration at Mount of Olives cemetary 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Here is an important phone number, worth storing in every Israeli-Jewish cell-phone: 627-1598.
Believe it or not, this is the number you have to dial to obtain – within two hours at most – an armed, free chaperon for your visit to the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, the most ancient and revered Jewish cemetery in the world.
Years of debates, generous budgets and hours of meetings, plans and decisions have centered around this requirement. But until at least March 2011, according to the Jerusalem Development Authority, the only way to visit the place will be escorted by bodyguards.
The escort requirement is a result of a serious incident that took place last year, when a burial was interrupted by violent attackers.
“We had to abandon the corpse there, on the ground, while we all scattered away, called the police and couldn’t return until some armed policemen came to secure us,” recalls former deputy mayor Haim Miller, a Ger Hassid. “I have never felt so humiliated and afraid at the same time.
“Here, in Jerusalem, in the State of Israel, a dead Jew is lying on the ground while the bereaved followers run to search for the police because the authorities cannot prevent attacks from the nearby Arab residents?” asks Miller, in shock. “It was traumatic, and since I have members of my family buried there, I swore to myself I would not rest until something was done.”
The issue of security in the Mount of Olives cemetery is arousing fury among the parties involved. Some rightwing activists, such as Aryeh King – who heads the Israel Land Fund – argue that the actual risk factor is being blown out of proportion by JDA officials, who are eager to claim more government funds. Meanwhile, although official sources in the police department confirm that there is some real danger, they say they can do little to protect the grounds because the Construction and Housing Ministry is responsible for the area’s security.
For the past six months, there have been no records of similarly dangerous incidents, but nevertheless, violence and fear still persist. Pressure from haredi circles finally led to the decision to provide the escort service, at least until a more long-term solution can be arranged. At the same time, a group of Diaspora Jews – the International Committee for Protection of Har Hazeitim – is currently visiting the country to meet with various officials and promote security rights at the site.
VANDALISM, DESECRATION and destruction of the graves and ancient tombs, as well as fear of attacks and violence by the Arab residents nearby, has been the norm at the Mount of Olives cemetery for years, since it came back into Israeli hands in 1967. Despite a considerable improvement in government financing – NIS 84 million in five years – for security measures and site rehabilitation, the situation is still far from acceptable, particularly when it comes to security.
For many years, an attempt to create a separate authority to govern the entire site was promoted by several politicians but has thus far yielded no success.
“I really don’t understand why there can’t be, like at the Western Wall, one authority, whether it is under the wings of the Ministry of Religion, the JDA or the municipality of Jerusalem – one single body, one address that would take care [of the site] and wipe out this disgrace,” says MK Arye Eldad (National Union).
The Mount of Olives cemetery is thought to have been a burial place for Jews since biblical times, according to Jewish tradition. Absalom’s Pillar, situated in the valley below, is commonly believed to be the burial place of King David’s rebellious son.
The estimate regarding the exact number of graves varies – from 75,000 to 150,000 – and some are believed to be graves of biblical prophets, like Zechariah. The Mount of Olives became a pilgrimage site, because it was 80 meters higher than the Temple Mount and offered a panoramic view of the Temple. It then became a traditional place for lamenting the Temple’s destruction. In recent centuries, Jews have come to the Holy Land to pray at the Western Wall and be buried facing it, including prominent historical figures like Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook and his son, Zvi Yehuda Kook.
Between 1948 and 1967, under Jordanian rule, no Jews were buried on the mount, and the cemetery suffered from large-scale desecration and destruction. About 40,000 graves were destroyed in total, even before the construction of the Intercontinental Hotel at the top of the mount, which caused damage to hundreds more graves. It is estimated that since 1967, about 5,000 Jews, mostly from Jerusalem but also from abroad, have been buried there.
During the Jordanian period, tons of concrete, dirt and construction debris were dumped in the area below Jericho Road, close to Absalom’s Pillar, in such drastic quantities that graves underneath required years of excavation.
This section remains a particularly bustling spot due to the two churches on-site – the Church of All Nations and the golden Provoslavian Church – that attract Christian tourists in addition to Jews already visiting the cemetery.
ASHER BEN-YOSEF, the chief architect at the site currently being rehabilitated by the JDA and the Moriah municipal company took In Jerusalem on a private tour.
“First we had to uncover the graves, then to clean them and then, with the help of the Atra Kadisha people, to reconstruct – as much as possible – the graves,” he says.
“We decided to go for two kinds of design for the reconstructed graves, and on each grave – where we could obtain the information – we put back the ancient stones with the original inscriptions.
“This is a very moving site. There are a few very highly revered rabbis buried here, and on their yahrzeit, thousands of people come – we are doing the best we can to make this place look decent again.”
Another no less important aspect of the rehabilitation project is the computerization of the graves’ location.
Once the graves are identified, mostly thanks to old Hevra Kadisha records and testimonies from members of the Old Yishuv, the information can be obtained from the Mount of Olives Cemetery website (www.mountofolives.
co.il).
There are also free tours of the site provided by tour guides from the nearby Ir David archeological site. And if someone has a relative buried there but is unable to visit the cemetery, the site offers Kaddish services in return for a modest donation.
On the way out of the cemetery, IJ met with with a woman in her 50s named Hana, who came with her son and uncle to visit her father’s recently renovated grave.
Her father had immigrated from Morocco in the late 1950s, and when close to his death, he asked that his family bury him on the Mount of Olives.
“He died soon after the Yom Kippur War,” she says.
“Over the years we came every year, but with fear and anger at the sight of the neglect of the graves here. Now it’s getting better, it’s clean and we can reach my father’s grave relatively easily, though it is not always safe here.”
Over the years, the responsibility for rehabilitation fell into the joint hands of the Construction and Housing Ministry and the JDA. However, the real push for improvements didn’t begin until about five years ago, when the different parties involved attempted to designate one sole overseer for the area.
Eldad proposed a bill to create an authority responsible for the Mount of Olives during both the 16th and 17th Knessets, but his suggestion remains stuck in the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. Meanwhile, some serious new efforts are coming from the State Control Committee, presided over by MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima), which have led, so far, to two meetings and a tour of the site. In response to the state comptroller report published at the end of last year, Hasson convened his committee – of which Eldad is a member – in February this year, together with representatives from all the parties involved (the JDA, the Construction and Housing Ministry, the Jerusalem Municipality and the National Cemeteries Council).
Former deputy mayor Miller was also invited, and spoke for the first time of both his own traumatic experience and other testimonies he had received from residents who wished to visit or bury their loved ones on the mount.
Because the Construction and Housing Ministry is in charge of security for east Jerusalem, its representatives at the meeting were asked why erecting a defense barrier – either a fence or a sophisticated security system (virtual fence) was not the first step taken in the rehabilitation plan. They responded that the biggest issue was not the construction of a fence, but the fact that none of the parties involved were ready to take responsibility for the five security cameras already in place inside the cemetery.
“It is not a problem of money; it has never been one,” confirms Eldad. “There is no landlord over this important site and it all comes down to that.”
Nevertheless, following a special tour of the site 10 days ago organized by Hasson and attended by representatives of all the parties involved, a new resolution was adopted and an improved plan revealed, including a budget for the rehabilitation. According to the plan, 7,000 graves will be rehabilitated annually, for a period of five years.
Meanwhile, the focus of the group’s tour was centered around security issues, rather than on grave rehabilitation because as is written in the state comptroller’s report, the “whole budget of NIS 84 million might get totally lost, if there is nothing done to prevent and stop the vandalism, violence and desecration going on in the site.”
A source in the municipality says, “It is as if all the parties involved do not understand that the real problem today is not the destruction caused to the site during the Jordanian period – we have known that since the first days after the 1967 war. The money given by the government is a fair amount to cover the work. The problem is that as long as nothing is done to stop the vandalism, which is largely political vandalism, nothing will help, and the money keeps running for nothing.”
AND THE level of desecration of the cemetery is not decreasing. On the contrary, according to JDA findings, the site continues to a dumping ground for construction debris, used by local Arab contractors who do not want to be caught building illegally in nearby neighborhoods. The site was so filled with debris that a private cleaning company was hired, which did “a little bit better than what had been done until then,” adds the JDA source.
Among the desecration and dirt are human feces and hateful graffiti, and graves recently rehabilitated and cleaned through the project have not been spared. The grounds beneath the graves remain covered with garbage, drug paraphernalia and remains of fires and food, while many headstones have been shattered by hammers.
Mourners are also time and again physically assaulted in their vehicles by the frequent stonings that originate from a nearby Arab school, located on top of the road that leads from the valley to the mount.
In March, a family was attacked with boards, cement blocks and rocks, leaving two people hospitalized. Stones continue to be thrown daily, according to police reports. Even the graves of the Ger Rebbe and of former prime minister Menachem Begin have been desecrated more than once during the past year.
This month, the watch committee organized by Diaspora Jews – the International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeitim – to reverse the cemetery’s desecration, visited with local officials.
Their initiative began after group members observed tombstones wrecked with “the kind of maliciousness that defies the imagination,” according to the spokesman, Rafael Fischer. The organization is composed of both public and private individuals with one common goal, “to dramatically and sustainably improve the current situation at the Mount of Olives Cemetery,” Fisher adds.
Members all have loved ones buried on the Mount of Olives and say they feel an obligation to confront what they consider rampant and systematic grave destruction, violence directed at visitors and general neglect at the holiest and most ancient Jewish cemetery.
They aim to influence the government into taking decisive and meaningful action.
Among those involved – mostly Orthodox Americans – are Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Steve Savitsky, president of the Orthodox Union; Shlomo Mostofsky, president of the National Council of Young Israel and David Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudat Israel of America. The group held a wellattended conference on November 13 at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue.
“There is no reason the desecration of this holy site should go on,” says King, who met with the delegation. “It looks like nobody really wants to complete the works there, and why would they? After all, there are about 30 people who get decent salaries to work on the Mount of Olives cemetery, for a few years now – and surprise surprise, there is not much improvement, so how should we explain that?” King is a fierce opponent of the idea to circle the cemetery with a virtual fence. For King, the simplest and cheapest solution is an actual fence, at least at first, and perhaps later, if it turns out it is not enough to deter vandals, some electronic deterrence. The different bodies involved “just don’t care enough about public money,” according to King.
“THERE WILL never be a fence around the site,” says a source at the JDA. “Any place that overlooks the Temple Mount – and this is exactly what the Mount of Olives cemetery is – cannot hurt the sight with a fence, aesthetic as it could be. We are working on a sophisticated alternative, which includes cameras, security patrols 24/7, sensors all over relayed to a monitoring center. There is no need for a fence.”
Asked why there is still no single authority that would monitor all site rehabilitation and security, the source says that “there is no need to have such a central body until all the works are done, and then, I guess it will probably be in the hands of the cemeteries council, part of the Religious Affairs Ministry.”
Hasson believes that the situation at the site will soon improve.
“We have managed to bring the issue to the public’s attention – things are improving on the ground, and there is an understanding, at all levels, that this situation [the neglect and the lack of security] cannot continue. I agree that the best solution would be to have one authority responsible for the site, like at the Western Wall,” he says.
“For the moment, my first priority is to see that the rehabilitation and cleaning process is done properly and quickly, and that the computerization of the findings is completed, so that any Jew here or abroad can access the information needed.”