Testimonies of Jordanians

Am I My Brother's Keeper?

The questions and answers recorded here are taken from the testimony gathered by the Inter-Ministerial Commission for the Examination of the Desecration of the Burial Grounds on the Mount of Olives and at Hebron, appointed on July 21, 1967, by the Israel Minister of Religious Affairs , in conjunction with the Chief Rabbis, the Minister of Justice and the Director-General of the Foreign Ministry.

Mohammed Sayad, then about 60, of Abu-Tor, had been the watchman for the "Congregation of Jerusalem" burial society.
Q: Just how did you perform your duties as watchman?
A: What could I do? If I had spoken out against the government, they would have shot me on the spot...I was ready to do my job as watchman. And I want the burial society that hired me to pay me now what they owe me for all these years. It's not my fault that the (Jordanian) Government decided to destroy the cemetery...

Khalil Ibn Sadar Khalil, then 33, is the son of Sadar Khalil, who had served on behalf of the Jordanian Government as caretaker of the Mount of Olives cemetery, At the outbreak of hostilities in June, 1967, Sadar Khalil fled to Amman.
Q: What was your father's job?
A: He was supposed to see to it that private individuals did not take out tombstones or other stones without a permit from the Government. There were several merchants who held concessions that allowed them to trade in stones from the cemetery. All the rest we would chase away...
Q: Who paid your father's salary?
A: The City did. Mayor Anwar el-Khatib sent the cheques.
Q: How were the graves mutilated?
A: Workmen came during the day and pulled apart the stones and the tombstones and at night the army lorries came, loaded up the tombstones and drove off. The rest of the stones were taken by the merchants.

Ali Mohammed Ali, then 25, part-owner of a filling station on the Jerusalem-Jericho highway, widened by the Jordanian authorities at the expense of the Mount of Olives cemetery.
Q: Did you know about the defacement and destruction of graves?
A: Everybody know. Anyone who needed building stones used to go to these merchants and buy stones from Jewish graves...

Mohammed Ahmed el-Khak, who claimed to be 111 years old, referred to himself as a "municipal gardener."
Q: Did you see how they ravaged the graves?
A: Yes I saw. All the people around here knew about it, but I didn't know it was forbidden. According to the Koran, a cemetery in which there haven't been any burials for fifteen years may be destroyed.
Q: When did they begin with this destruction here?
A: Oh, a long time ago-maybe in 1949 already...