Jerusalem, Israel - Plans for a Jerusalem museum dedicated to tolerance and coexistence got the final go-ahead Wednesday from Israel's Supreme Court, which rejected an appeal by Muslims who complained the site covers part of an ancient Muslim cemetery.
The judges ruled they would not block construction since no objections had been lodged in 1960 when the city put a parking lot over a small section of the graveyard.
The Museum of Tolerance is intended to bring the city's warring tribes together. But the planning alone sparked a fight with political, religious and historical dimensions between Muslims and Jews.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Los Angeles-based Jewish organization behind the project, welcomed the court ruling after a two-year delay in work on the $250 million museum caused by legal proceedings.
"All citizens of Israel, Jews and non-Jews, are the real beneficiaries of this decision," Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Wiesenthal Center the center, said in a statement.
But Zahi Nujidat, a spokesman for the Israeli Islamic movement, condemned the court for what he called "clear religious and ethnic oppression."
The court sought to address religious demands for respecting the dead by giving the project 60 days to agree with the state-run Antiquities Authority on a plan for either removing human remains for reburial or installing a barrier between the museum's foundation and the ground below to avoid disturbing graves.
The cemetery, which the court said has graves dating back 300 to 400 years, fell out of use after the creation of Israel in 1948. But many of its headstones are still visible, crumbling among trees in what has become the heart of the Jewish side of the city. Part of the cemetery is now known as Independence Park.
Another section of the cemetery was sold in the 1930s, at the initiative of the top Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, to become a hotel.
The museum's Muslim opponents found unexpected allies among ultra-Orthodox Jews, who aren't known for sympathizing with Arab causes but who care about preserving graves. Orthodox Jews often disrupt construction when graves are uncovered. Typically the problem is solved by slightly altering a project.
The Antiquities Authority has said it is impractical to halt construction every time graves are found, because it happens so often. Israel has more archaeological sites per square mile than anywhere else in the world.
The Wiesenthal Center says the museum was conceived to promote coexistence in a city that is holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians and is claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians as a capital.
Plans call for a conference center, a theater and museums for adults and children with exhibits covering Jewish history and Israel's relations with its Arab neighbors. The center was designed by the renowned architect Frank Gehry.
"Jerusalem is 3,000 years old and every stone and parcel of land has a history that is revered by people of many faiths," Hier said. "We are deeply committed to do everything in our power to respect that sacred past, but at the same time we must allow Jerusalem to have a future."