Tonight, Israel will mark Yom Hashoah, the annual day of remembrance for the six million Jews slaughtered at the hands of the Nazis – whose collective shadow looms large over both the state of Israel and the entire diaspora community. However, as I wrote this time two years ago, "while 'never forget' is a worthy and worthwhile refrain, it rings a bit hollow if all we do is remember without taking the next step and actively confronting abuses, wherever in the world they flourish unchecked".

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre (SWC) is, ostensibly, one such organisation that has thrown down the gauntlet to future generations to learn from the mistakes of history rather than be doomed to repeat them. By "confronting antisemitism, hate and terrorism, promoting human rights and dignity, standing with Israel, defending the safety of Jews worldwide and teaching the lessons of the Holocaust", the group sets out to rid the globe of the scourge of racial hatred, yet has managed to become entangled in just such an ugly, sectarian clash in the heart of downtown Jerusalem.

Thanks to the SWC's insistence on constructing an ironically named Museum of Tolerance atop a Muslim cemetery, the organisation has driven yet another nail into the coffin of coexistence between Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land. The SWC claims that the museum will be a beacon "that speaks to the world and confronts today's important issues, like … human dignity, responsibility, and promoting unity", despite refusing to take a dose of its own medicine when it comes to the contentious location of the complex.

Muslim groups are, understandably, up in arms about the decision to dig up their antecedents' graves, a move described by the IPCRI's Gershon Baskin as an "open wound; a festering sore [that will alienate the entire Arab community of Israel]". Jewish history backs up his assertion that the desecration of holy sites and religious artefacts unites a people in their wrath: decades have passed since the Nazis used Jewish gravestones to pave roads, and Arabs made latrines from Jewish tombstones on the Mount of Olives, yet the defilement is seared on the collective memory of countless Jews the world over.

That extremist groups such as Elad (with the full support of the Israeli authorities) have no problem trampling over the rights of non-Jewish residents of Israel is, while utterly unacceptable, not unexpected given their hardline, self-centred political agendas. Yet for the SWC to join the ranks of those ripping up the rulebook of tolerance and respect is extraordinary, given the group's raison d'etre.

Alana Alpert, a yeshiva student from Los Angeles, adroitly sums up the imbroglio in which the SWC is caught: "Homes are demolished in Silwan, families are [evicted] in Sheikh Jarrah … these injustices are all part of the effort to erase the heritage and presence of Palestinians in the State of Israel. The SWC has become unintentionally complicit, and therefore American Jews are complicit, in this unholy project". Alpert has been mobilising American Jews in Israel to campaign against the museum's construction, a community typically uninvolved in solidarity efforts on behalf of the Palestinians.

Along with fellow students, she organised a recent demonstration at the construction site, gathering scores of likeminded protesters to voice their disapproval of the project. Most of those present were rabbinical students and Jewish educators, all of whom saw the desecration of Muslim graves as completely at odds with the Jewish values upon which their faith rests. While their fundamental aim was to bring about the scheme's cancellation, they also intended to send a message to the Muslim community that there is opposition to the construction from within the Jewish camp. According to Alpert, that the protest was reported in the Al-Quds newspaper meant that "at the very least, the Palestinians know that there are Jews prepared to stand up for Muslim rights" – which, in a country steeped in segregation and division, is worth its weight in gold to those seeking to build bridges between the two camps.

Despite the best efforts of those seeking to prevent the project's completion, including several unsuccessful legal challenges through the Israeli courts, the building work continues unhindered under the watchful gaze of armed guards protecting the labourers. The SWC are impervious to the pleas of those opposing the plans, having decided to dig in their heels and drive on with their quest, regardless of the damage it is doing to the organisation's reputation, not to mention that of the Jewish community at large.

However, as long as there are those prepared to speak out against the injustice – those who realise that true Jewish teaching does not leave any room for callous actions such as the SWC are taking – then there is at least some hope for those ploughing a lonely furrow towards a different future for the residents of Israel. To sit idly by while human rights, dignity and respect are buried under an avalanche of intolerance is precisely what Jews ought not be doing, given our own tragic history throughout the ages. Standing up to the abuse, as Alpert and her fellow demonstrators continue to do, is the right and proper way to honour those who died in the Holocaust; a tangible application of the "never forget" adage, which the Simon Wiesenthal Centre would do well to incorporate into its own actions, rather than just its words.