Settlers began converting an Islamic mosque west of Jerusalem into a Jewish synagogue last January. The part that was actually converted into a synagogue is a building topped with a dome, in which the bodies of Muslim leaders are buried.
The graves belong to princes and military leaders from the Mamluk period. In the 1920s, Jews stormed the mosque and destroyed its contents. It was then closed completely after the occupation of Jerusalem in 1948, and the area around it turned into neighborhoods for religious Jews.