The center’s move has drawn outrage from Muslims and non-Muslims alike who say that the museum is rejecting the very ideals it stands for.

"It’s simply hypocritical and laughable," said Durgham Seif, a Jerusalem lawyer who heads Karamah organization, which is taking the lead in the legal battle to protect the cemetery. "It’s an example of American Jewish leaders preaching compassion and tolerance and doing exactly the opposite."

Ekrima Sabri, imam of the Al-Aqsa mosque expressed outrage at the idea of building a museum of tolerance on the Muslim cemetery. "Would anyone dare build anything on the graves of Jews or Christians?" he told InFocus in a telephone interview. "Why is it permissible for an organization that claims to promote tolerance to build on Muslim remains?" he asked.

However, the center’s attorneys asserted that the site, given to the center by the Government of Israel and the Municipality of Jerusalem has been a public parking lot for 30 years and never designated as a cemetery. Seif, who also represents a family whose loved ones are buried in the cemetery, said the claims were preposterous. "The site has always been a cemetery," Seif said. "It has always been part of the Waqf, or Islamic Trust. The cemetery has always been there and so were the dead interred therein," he added.

Seif said that according to a 1938 document the size of the cemetery was 134 Dunham (134,560m). That size shrunk to just about 28 Dunham (27,790m) while the Museum of Tolerance is planned to stand on another 11 Dunham (10, 860m). Imam Sabri said that over the years Israel illegally built a bus parking lot (9 Dunham), a public park (63 Dunham), other buildings on the edge of the cemetery and even ran a sewage system and an electrical grid through the property thus damaging dozens of graves. "All these actions were illegal," Imam Sabri said. "Anyone claiming it was a parking lot or a public space is simply compounding the illegality of this land theft," he added.

The cemetery is located in what became West Jerusalem, the Israeli side of the city. After the founding of Israel in 1948 war, authorities declared it "absentee property." Seif disagreed, "What they call ‘absentee property’ is in fact ‘illegally confiscated’ property," he said. "After Israel occupied Jerusalem, it expropriated Palestinian private property, including Trust property like the cemetery," he added.

Another argument propagated by the Wiesenthal Center is that the cemetery was "abandoned." Imam Sabri was puzzled. "Even if it were abandoned, does it mean it is legal to dig or build on it?" he asked. Then added, "Jews and Christians also have old cemeteries but nobody appropriates them or builds on their graves based on the assumption that the cemetery is abandoned!"

A spokesperson for the Wiesenthal Center said, "At no time did the government of Israel or the city of Jerusalem designate the site as a Muslim cemetery." Sief said that this argument is totally false. "The Israelis have the site on their maps designated as a ‘Muslim cemetery.’ It has always been there," he added. Imam Sabri seconded that argument by saying, "As an occupying entity, Israel does not have the right to own an Islamic Trust property and call it its own, let alone give it away it to a foreign organization."

A spokeswoman for the Israeli Antiquities Authority, Osnat Goaz, argued that building on other Jewish, Christian and Muslim cemeteries goes on daily in Israel. "Israel is more crowded with ancient artifacts than any other country in the world," Goaz said. "If we didn’t build on former cemeteries, we would never build in Israel."

Attorney Seif rejected this argument. "Building on a plot of land and not knowing it is a cemetery is one thing," he said. "Building on an actual existing cemetery and on a land that is owned by someone else is a completely different matter. It is illegal, immoral and unconscionable."

Other critics of the project assert that by insisting on construction of the museum, the Wiesenthal Center is not only deceiving its donors but is being an accomplice to the Israeli government that has worked hard to erase Palestinian identity in Jerusalem.

Construction on the site started in December 2005. The Aqsa Association for Defending the Holly Sites filed an urgent petition with the Israeli Supreme Court in Jan. 2006 but the Court refused to issue an injunction order. Seif’s organization, Karamah, then filed a petition with the Sharia Court (Islamic Court) in Israel (because of legal jurisdiction) on behalf of 3 Palestinian families and filed a follow up petition with the Supreme Court. After hearing both petitions the Supreme Court ruled on 22nd of Feb. 2006 to issue an injunction, which halted the construction on the site.

The Wiesenthal Center delayed construction for just a day and then resumed building while awaiting the Supreme Court’s final decision. Seif estimated that the digging has harmed over one thousand graves so far and also said that initially the museum was supposed to be built in an area called the "French Hill" but then was moved to the site of the Muslim cemetery.

The really damaging criticism came from Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem whose leaders argued that another museum about the Holocaust in Jerusalem was totally unnecessary. The Wiesenthal Center settled the dispute with Yad Vashem by signing a certified letter promising not to deal with the Holocaust in its new Jerusalem museum but critics contend that the main museum in Los Angeles teaches its message of tolerance largely through displays about the Holocaust. "How else would the Jerusalem museum teach tolerance?" they asked.

The continuing work on the site has irked Muslim organizations and also drawn heavy criticism from Jewish lawmakers of all political persuasions in Israel. Deputy Knesset speaker and member of the left-wing Labor Party Colette Avital said, "We ask other religions to consider and respect our holy places. We Jews should also have consideration for the feelings of other religions." Ultra-Orthodox Shas Party Knesset member David Azoulay espoused that sentiment and added that Jews always protested and expressed outrage whenever a Jewish cemetery was being desecrated. "Why should a Muslim cemetery be any different?"

The Wiesenthal Center offered to pay for the relocation of Muslim remains to another site but Muslim groups refused. Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin was incensed. "Why should the Museum of Tolerance sit on a cemetery for crying out loud?" he asked. "If my parents were dug out in order to glorify tolerance I would be angry," he exclaimed.

Both parties are currently awaiting the final decision from Israel’s Supreme Court. Seif is hopeful the court will make the right decision. Imam Sabri called on Muslims to support the cemetery by peacefully protesting against the Wiesenthal Center’s plans to go ahead with the construction. "We need to know that if this museum is really about tolerance," he said, "This tolerance is not going to be built on the graves of Muslims!"