About 40 settlers stormed the Bab al-Rahma cemetery, adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque, and destroyed the headstones of a number of graves (Al-Jazeera)
Occupied Jerusalem
- Today, Saturday, Israeli settlers stormed the Bab al-Rahma cemetery in occupied Jerusalem and destroyed Islamic gravestones.
The Jerusalem Governorate, which is the highest Palestinian representation in the city, said that settlers stormed “Bab al-Rahma Cemetery, adjacent to the eastern wall of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, this morning, and destroyed the headstones of some of the graves there.”
Meanwhile, the Wadi Hilweh Human Rights Information Center in Jerusalem said that about 40 settlers stormed the Bab al-Rahma cemetery located at the eastern wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque, desecrated the graves by trampling on them, and destroyed the headstones of a number of graves.
The center quoted the official of the Committee for the Care of Islamic Cemeteries in Jerusalem, Mustafa Abu Zahra, as saying that the settlers’ attack comes within a series of attacks on Muslim cemeteries, especially the Bab al-Rahma cemetery.
He continued that cemeteries "have a special sanctity, and the dead have a special sanctity (...) and any attack is a violation of the sanctity of the cemeteries and the dead."
The historic Bab al-Rahma cemetery is subjected to repeated attacks by settlers, including the settlers storming it late last December, and hanging a donkey’s head on the tombs of the venerable companions Shaddad bin Aws and Ubadah bin al-Samit, according to the Islamic Endowments Council in the Holy City.
The Bab al-Rahma cemetery in Jerusalem is of special importance to Muslims.
Its history dates back to 1,400 years ago, and it also contains the graves of companions, scholars, leaders and martyrs of Islamic conquests throughout history.
The cemetery is located east of Al-Aqsa Mosque on an area estimated at about 23,000 square meters, but the occupation’s ambitions are pursuing it by bulldozing and Judaizing it.
Source: Al Jazeera + websites