Today, the graveyard has almost disappeared. A few ancient tombstones are relegated into the lower part, covered by grass and trash.



It’s not easy to estimate how many gravestones were located there but, according to one investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, at least 1,500 tombs were removed by bulldozers and the human remains just thrown away.



“The Palestinian residents of Jerusalem have to ask the Israeli State for the permission to clean and take care of the cemetery,” Dajani said at the time. “And every time they refuse. If we come and do some work, after a while they destroy what we build to protect the tombs”.

Since the creation of the State of Israel, the Israeli government has worked to remove the graveyard from the heart of West Jerusalem. “In 1948, the year of Nakba, the catastrophe of the Palestinian people, the upper part was immediately transformed into a public park, renamed ‘Independence Park’, aimed at celebrating the victory in the ’48 war. They created the garden, uprooting and removing dozens of ancient tombs.” explains Nader Dajani to MondoWeiss last year.