Arabs complain (again) about Jerusalem Beer Festival

From The New Arab:

Israeli companies have announced their intention to organise a beer festival on the historic Islamic cemetery of Mamilla in Jerusalem this week.

The festival was endorsed by the local Israeli authority who posted the event on their website. According to an announcement for the event, there will be around "120 different varieties of local and international beers on offer over two days."

The festival is organised on the territory of the Islamic cemetery Mamilla.

The Israeli governments have turned large parts of it into a public park under the name "Independence Park" after dredging and removing most of the graves which cover an area of more 200 acres.

Last year, Gulf News said that the entire purpose of the festival is to anger Muslims:

The festival is an intentional provocation to enflame Palestinian anger, according to Fakhri Abu Diyab, head of the Palestinian local committee in defense of Jerusalem.

Any type of festive celebration at a cemetery is disrespectful and inflammatory, let alone festival styled around an alcohol theme. In Islam, consuming alcohol is forbidden.

The Gulf news article also renames the cemetery (which was originally named after a Christian saint) the "Ma’amanallah Cemetery in occupied East Jerusalem."

In 1945, the Supreme Muslim Council de-consecrated the entire cemetery and planned to build a business park - and a public park as well, to be called the Salah ed Din (Saladin) Park.

But when Jews enjoy a park that Muslims wanted to build on that same spot, suddenly the cemetery becomes sacred again.

The Muslims at the time justified this use of the cemetery by noting that other Muslim cemeteries had been de-consecrated for public use, such as one at Herod's Gate and one in Jaffa. 

There have been no graves in the area of the park for many decades.

As I've noted before, the infamous Mufti of Jerusalem once re-directed the sewage system of the Palace Hotel he was building into the cemetery,

It appears that the sacredness of Muslim holy spots is directly correlated to the presence of Jews.

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