Staff from the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem continued on Tuesday to dig and destroy graves of dead Palestinians and level land at the Islamic Al-Yusufiyah cemetery, despite strong protests from families of those buried there, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
"I won't leave my son," says Palestinian mother as she clings to her son's grave in Al-Yusufiyah cemetery in East Jerusalem, which is being demolished by the Israeli occupation #Palestine #IsraeliCrimes pic.twitter.com/z6eEJxQh2K
— Palestine in the UK (@PalMissionUK) October 26, 2021
Eyewitnesses told WAFA that the Israeli staff destroyed several headstones and graves in the cemetery, as they proceed to level it in an attempt to totally remove as part of Israel’s effort to change the Arab and Islamic character of the occupied holy city.
Watch: Workers from the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority cut trees as the municipality continues to level parts of Islamic Al-Yusufiyah Cemetery in #Jerusalem’s Old City. It plans to erase it to change the Arab and Islamic character of the city.#FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/TbgrHABkUv
— Wafa News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) October 26, 2021
Israeli police forcibly removed families of Palestinians buried there who were objecting the desecration of the graves as remains of the dead were exposed.
Israel says it intends to turn the cemetery, located near Lions Gate – one of the gates to the old city of Jerusalem that leads to Al-Aqsa Mosque – into a Jewish biblical park.
(WAFA, PC, Social Media)
