Gershon Baskin, Co-CEO of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information writes:
The Director of the Wiesenthal Center from Los Angeles had a piece in the Jerusalem Post which included a direct attach against me. I wrote a response to the Post but they have responded that they have given both of us our say – which is true. So I want to share my response with you because it concerns the continued building of the Wiesenthal Museum over the Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem. I will first put in my response followed by Hier’s piece . Take note that he in no part of his arguments addresses the original concerns that I raised in my piece in the Jerusalem Post. (You can see my original arguments against the Museum at::
http://www.ipcri.org/files/cityoftolerance.html)
Dear Editor
Shame on you Marvin Hier (JP November 9, 2008). You argue the right of the Wiesenthal Center to construct a Museum of “Tolerance” on top of an ancient Muslim cemetery on legal grounds predicated on various interpretations of Islamic Law. You then go on to associate me with Hamas and Hizbullah because I have raised my voice against the selected location of the Museum. I, Mr Hier am an Israeli by choice, a Jew and a Zionist who has built a home and a family in Israel, in Jerusalem out of my deep sense of belonging to this people. My arguments against the building the Museum on a Muslim Cemetery are Jewish, Israeli and Jerusalemite arguments. You call yourself a Rabbi. You know as well as any Jew that we can find Jewish texts and Rabbis to justify almost anything. The same is true in Islam. Find yourself a Sheikh. You certainly did, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who collaborated with Hitler and another Israeli State appointed Islamic Judge, during the time when all Israeli Arab citizens lived under Military Government, who was later removed from office and imprisoned for corruption.
I never claimed that it was the bones and skulls of those who are beneath the ground, soon to be beneath your Museum of Tolerance, who will threaten the stability of the Middle East. It is people like you, Mr. Hier, very much alive, who seek to bring animosity to the State of Israel and hatred between Israelis and Arabs, Muslims and Jews. It is you who is causing great damage to the good name of the State of Israel, to the City of Jerusalem and to the Jewish people. Shame on you, living on your high moral ground in Beverley Hills, far away from this disaster that you have laid at our doorstep.
If the government of Israel had any courage, it would step in to stop this project, in the name of public safety and to protect the good name of the State of Israel. I wonder how many envelopes filled with cash made their way into the hands of those in charge of advancing this embarrassment.
Finally, I can only smile at the fact that your attack against me, Mr. Hier, appears just below an article entitled “When good men did nothing” – you can imagine what that one is about.
Gershon Baskin, November 9, 2008
Rabbi Marvin Hier: Right of Reply: A center of hope and reason