Jerusalem — Frank Gehry pulled out of a $250 million project to build a museum, according to Tablet Magazine.  

Gehry is a Jewish Canadian-American and Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, Calif. who was scheduled to work on the Museum of Tolerance-Jerusalem.

The museum, which is to be built upon what was once used as an ancient Muslim cemetery, is a Jerusalem counterpart to the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance. 

Craig Webb, the design partner in charge of the project for the firm of Gehry said, “We are no longer involved in it.” 

Simon Wiesenthal Center, which opened its original Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles in 1993, does not have the right to use Gehry’s design and is considering alternatives, Webb said, according to Tablet. 

But according to Simon Wiesenthal Center public relations, this is not the case.

A unanimous decision was made by the center's Board of Trustees, Nov. 5 which announced that Museum of Tolerance project in Jerusalem will be redesigned to "reflect today's world economic realities." 

A name for a new architect for the redesign will be announced shortly, according to an e-mail sent to IFN by Valerie Ramirez from Rubenstein PR, a public relations agency that represents Simon Wiesenthal Center. 

Founder and Dean of Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Marvin Hier said that although it is unfortunate that Gehry will not be working on the project, the decision is right for the center.

"The good news, however, is that the project is moving forward; we have a fantastic site in the heart of Jerusalem and we can now refocus all of our energies on bringing to Jerusalem and the people of Israel a project crucial to its future," Hier said, according to Ramirez. 

Webb would not say why his Los Angeles-based firm ended its involvement. 

"It is politically very sensitive," he said, according to Tablet.

But according to an e-mail sent by Simon Wiesenthal Center's public relations this is not true. 

"Contrary to a published report quoting my partner Craig Webb, this parting has nothing whatsoever to do with perceived political sensitivities. The Museum of Tolerance project is vitally important, and I have no doubt that Rabbi Hier will create a visitor experience that will bring people of all faiths closer together," Gehry said according to an email sent by Ramirez.

Some speculations for why he withdrew from the project, besides political, include financial reasons. One blogger stated that Hier and Gehry just didn't have the funds, which is why Hier decided to change the project for economic reasons.

"I think it even more likely that given the Winnick disaster and last year's economic implosion which hit L.A's wealthy real estate developers (and most likely gift prospects) especially hard, Gehry and Hier just had to bow to the hard reality that they didn't have the money for the project," Editor Richard Silverstein, of Tikun Olam, said.

Executive Director of the Council of American -Islamic Relations Hussam Ayloush said that the project would only cause more problems in the area if completed on the cemetery.

"Whether Frank Gehry's decision to withdraw was based on moral convictions or business factors, we are glad he has withdrawn from a project that would only cause increased tension and mistrust between Muslims and Jews in that volatile region," he said.

Currently, the center’s Web site reads, “Please check back soon” under a page devoted to the Jerusalem site. 

This is just the latest of obstacles the project has had to deal with since its inception; Muslims and Jews have since joined together to oppose the building of the museum in Mamilla Cemetery.

One of the first to act was Sheikh Raed Salah, a leader of Israel’s Islamic Movement. He claimed that the construction would violate an Islamic holy site. 

He and Jerusalem Arab families whose ancestors are buried in the cemetery petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to block it, but the court ruled that the construction would go ahead as planned since there were no objections in 1960 when a parking lot was placed over a small part of the cemetery. 

One Rabbi, who opposes the museum being built upon the Muslim cemetery, called the idea “disturbing.” 

“There is something profoundly disturbing about the idea of putting a Jewish Museum of Tolerance on a plot of land where Muslims have been burying their dead for most of the last 800 years,” said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism.

Ayloush urged that burial sites of all faiths be respected.

"Human remains — whether they are of a Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Christian, Native American or any other religious or ethnic tribe — deserve the utmost dignity and respect," he said. 

According to its mission statement, the Simon Wiesenthal Center promotes education by “confronting anti-Semitism, hate and terrorism, promoting human rights and dignity, standing with Israel, defending the safety of Jews worldwide, and teaching the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations.”

A former Israeli ambassador to Egypt and Jordan, Shimon Shamir, said he met with Gehry in Los Angeles two years ago in a bid to persuade him to withdraw.

“I explained what a big mistake it was,” Shamir said to Tablet by phone from Tel Aviv. “I hope it will never be built.”

While there are many who oppose the museum, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are among the many supporters of the Museum of Tolerance-Jerusalem.

The proposal received the blessing of Rabbi David Schmidl, head of the ultra-Orthodox Atra Kadisha organization, which fights against the desecration of Jewish graves, according to Haaretz.com.

Nir Barkat, Jerusalem’s mayor, has also given the project his full support.

“I don’t see any problem with the site, it’s a non-issue,” he said in an interview last August. 

Public authorities also gave the project all the necessary construction permits, according to Tablet.

Regardless, those opposed continue to take measures to see that the museum is not built.

Muslim and Jewish leaders from various Southern California organizations sent a letter in 2008 to the Wiesenthal Center stating that if the Museum of Tolerance were to be built upon the cemetery it would, "unlike the admirable goal of furthering tolerance and understand, will only add to the existing pain and suffering of Palestinians and Israelis, irreversibly damage relations between Muslims and Jews worldwide and sow new feelings of animosity and division for generations to come..."

The letter was co-signed by Ayloush, Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs of Progressive Faith Foundation, Sydney Levy of Jewish Voice for Peace, and Rabbi Haim Beliak of Ha Mifgash.

In an e-mail to IFN in 2008, Hier attributed the confusion to Salah, who petitioned the Supreme Court against the museum, and has done this on dozens of other sites in Israel.

Rabbi Beliak, on the other hand, said he has felt for a very long time that the place for this project was inappropriate.

“Anybody with the slightest sense of knowledge about the history of ongoing conflict in that area with a concern for developing good relations must realize that this is a disrespectful thing,” he said.  “It counteracts any hopes and aspirations for peace.”

Some agreed and even called the notion ironic.

Deriving from the name “Ma’man Allah” or “Sanctuary of God,” Mamilla cemetery is one of the largest Muslim cemeteries in Palestine, and according to some historians, perhaps even the oldest in Jerusalem.