Frank Gehry Pulls Out Of Jerusalem's Museum Of Tolerance

Tablet:

After years of protests and an unsuccessful legal challenge, architect Frank Gehry has pulled out of a project to build a Jerusalem counterpart to the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance that is slated to stand on a site that was once part of an ancient Muslim cemetery.

Read the whole story: Tablet

Comments

[TsaniLK]

04:37 AM on 02/06/2010

Ya know, I try and try to keep from comparing Israel and the Palistinians to the US and Native Americans, but they seem to go out of their way to follow the same formula. Just as in the land of the free and equality for all, except for "different" people, Israel's idea of tolerance only works for Israelis and only by ignoring another native people. And as with US legal concept of precedence, I love how they use former rulings, which weren't contested, to impose their will on others. As if to suggest that if it were a mistake then, without opposition, they can just keep making the same mistake over and over, even with opposition now. This is because someones grandparents didn't step up and contest it then, so now that someone looses all rights to the rest.

This sounds like a treaty giving some land to the US, and then the US coming back and claiming some more or all the rest, because grandpa didn't know about eminent domain, so never thought to put that restriction in the treaty. Ofcourse the US never stopped at those kind of restrictions anyway. But I think the comparison relevent.

With the way Israel deals with these "other" people, slowly but surely, they are driving them out. Culturally, as well as physically, Palistinians, in what was once Palistine, will be no more, and will anyone in the future even know they were there, unless one takes an obscure history class?

[gbrooks]

06:47 PM on 01/16/2010

Why not just be straightforward and buiId an outhouse on MusIim cemetaries? No need to beat around the bush...

[Hedonist]

06:20 PM on 01/15/2010

Arabs don't mind desecrating Jewish burial sites. On the Mount of Olives, the Jordanian Arabs removed 38,000 tombstones from the ancient Jewish cemetery and used them as paving stones for roads and as construction material in Jordanian Army camps, including use as latrines. When the area was recaptured by Israel in 1967, graves were found open with the bones scattered. Parts of the cemetery were converted into parking lots, a filling station, and an asphalt road was built to cut through it. The Intercontinental Hotel was built at the top of the cemetery. Sadar Khalil, appointed by the Jordanian government as the official caretaker of the cemetery, built his home on the grounds using the stones robbed from graves. In 1967, the press published extensive photos documenting that Jewish gravestones were found in Jordanian Army camps, such as El Azariya, as well as in Palestinian walkways, steps, bathrooms, and pavement.

Palestinians have EXTREMELY selective outrage.

[who38]

07:39 PM on 01/15/2010

"Palestinians have EXTREMELY selective outrage." .....as do most people who are trying to make an argument.

[skialethia]

01:00 AM on 01/16/2010

Two wrongs don't make a right. I condemn what the Jordanians did but at the same time, it seems Israelis have not learned from the Jordanians' mistakes (which occurred over 50 years ago), yet I'm sure the Jordanians learned something and would never repeat that mistake if the opportunity arose again. That in itself is a positive gained.

However, this being said, did they did they ever try to build a museum dedicated to tolerance whose aim is "to promote tolerance (in this case, amongst Jewish populations within Israel, including Ashkenazim, Mizrahim, Ethiopians, Russians, and others." wiki and I'm wondering what "others" stands for...sounds very alien to me), and pretend to be holier-than-thou, dedicating a museum to tolerance, while they hold a nation of millions of people imprisoned behind a concrete wall, steal land they claim to have a right to because God said so and because it was illegally plundered in war, and deprive these people of human and legal rights, and never mind that it will be built over a Muslim cemetery, because that transgression pales in comparison to the rest of these offenses (understatement)?

I just love it when hypocrisy tries to point the finger at past ignorance to justify itself. At least the "ignorance" evolved into better understanding. Let's hope hypocrisy sees the error of its ways too.

[TimDanMick]

01:36 PM on 01/15/2010

"the cemetery, which was in continuous use since at least the 13th century up to the early 20th."

A cultural connection of that duration is beyond the comprehension of the 2 centuries of US existence and the half a century of Israel. The irony of the use of the word "Tolerance" is perhaps lost on these young countries.

[ArtsyJane]

02:56 PM on 01/15/2010

Yes, pretty unbelievable.

[hippie4ever]

03:21 AM on 01/15/2010

I presume a major gallery is devoted to hypocrisy?

[rosiebond007]

01:21 AM on 01/15/2010

Where do you think Israel gets all of the money required to build this obscenity?

Why the American tax payer will be participating I am sure.

Can we object to having any of our money sent to this country in future. They seem to have enough of their own now.

[phute]

09:34 AM on 01/15/2010

Probably via charitable donations and a little local funding via kickbacks and the like.
don't forget - for tax purposes Israel becomes a charity.
Seems like it was dreamt up by cowboys and when push came to shove they were shown up for what they are - charlatans.

[Skeetshooter]

12:54 AM on 01/15/2010

I find a Museum of Tolerance atop an ancient cemetery innately more tolerable than a parking lot. Is it just me?

[skialethia]

01:12 AM on 01/15/2010

You forgot to mention: parking lot built by Israel. But you must admit a museum dedicated to tolerance is much more hypocritical. At least the parking lot says: we don't care where we build! And it's been that way ever since!

[who38]

07:44 PM on 01/15/2010

Fanned.

[skialethia]

12:40 AM on 01/15/2010

Too late. The genie has been out of the bottle for some time now. This is merely a bad omen; and everyone feels it. That's why some Rabbis oppose it, but irregardless of what they do at this point; the d i e is cast.

We should stop blaming God for tragedy. He created a universe with laws (Einstein and Newton and others figured it out) and no amount of praying or hypocrtical "good will" (or monument to tolerance) will save us from our karma.

God must be doing a major eye-roll on this plan, and saying "When will they ever learn."

[phute]

09:36 AM on 01/15/2010

To which some will reply - look we made you to further our own aims - when will you get that?

[kassandrasduplex]

11:53 PM on 01/14/2010

Wow! Tolerance defined in Hebrew apparently means desecration of other religions' burial grounds. Way to go Israel. I particularly love the bombing they just did in Iran this past week forever silencing Iran's prominent physics professor.

[Rand]

10:27 AM on 01/15/2010

Proof?

Or is it just "They're Jews, so they MUST have done it!"

[phute]

09:13 AM on 01/17/2010

Rand - are you being deliberately provocative?
Are you trying to goad an unsavoury response?
Not good.

[who38]

07:47 PM on 01/15/2010

Not sure about your Iran issue but read the OT re the desecration thing. Rape and murder are okayed too.

[DJ Koolkat]

11:24 PM on 01/14/2010

From Wikipedia: "The project aims to promote tolerance amongst Jewish populations within Israel, including Ashkenazim, Mizrahim, Ethiopians, Russians, and others."

So that remaining 20% of your population doesn't matter?

[ssfahrer]

11:34 PM on 01/14/2010

Not to a Jew. Thus Jews justify 'antisemitism' by their own actions!

[phute]

09:39 AM on 01/15/2010

Too right - check how the ashkenazis viewed the Mizrahi Jews when they arrived from Europe.
And how they view schwarzer Jews.
Not very tolerant are Ashkenazis.

[Rand]

12:01 PM on 01/15/2010

I'll try again (And will keep on doing so):

You've just justified anti-Semitism - the hatred of all Jews - based on the decision of the committee in charge of the placement of this museum

NOTHING "justifies" bigotry

For the record: I think that placing ANY museum on top of ANY cemetery is disgraceful

[MrBurlesk]

10:38 PM on 01/14/2010

Shades of "Poltergeist"!!!

[quindy]

05:49 PM on 01/14/2010

Museum of Tolerance on Muslim cemetery built by Israelis? Is there no boundary for cynicism?

[Luna C666]

05:44 PM on 01/14/2010

Building a Museum of Tolerance in Israel on top of a Muslim cemetery..
Are they going to build the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Endangered Species out of White Rhino horns next?

[brooklyncitizen]

03:53 PM on 01/14/2010

Funny how the irony of building atop a Muslim burial ground is lost to the folks at the Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance. These people think simply throwing money and attorneys to get what they want is all that is required. Also kind of intolerant is the insistence that this be the site for the project. If they proclaim to stand for " tolerance" they should be sensitive enough to avoid the political acrimony and a more suitable site.

Kudos to Gehry for pulling the plug.

[DrippingColors]

03:57 PM on 01/14/2010

So what do you mean by "these people"?

[Tulka2]

04:26 PM on 01/14/2010

The Israelis planning this building, of course. There is only one kind of tolerance that matters in Israel in the year 2010 and that's Israeli tolerance for Palestinians demanding the land and nation promised them in the 1948 United Nations edict.

[CigarGod]

05:19 PM on 01/14/2010

One of the more pathetic attempts I've seen.
No cigar for you.

[Oleg1]

03:27 PM on 01/14/2010

I don't think it is a good feng shui to build a museum on top of a cemetery.

[YankeeCanuck]

04:54 PM on 01/14/2010

Now that's funny!