Frank Gehry鈥檚 controversial Jewish museum, slated for construction on a Muslim graveyard in Jerusalem, might be moved to a different site
It is understood the recently elected mayor of Jerusalem has offered a new site to the group building the $150m (拢104m) museum in the hope that it will reconsider its plans.
The Museum of Tolerance is the brainchild of Jewish group the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
It is proposed to be built on a Muslim cemetery that the Israeli authorities argue is no longer in use but Palestinian lobbyists insist is still sacred.
A coalition of UK architects including Will Alsop, Eva Jiricna and Charles Jencks, led by lobby group Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, has joined calls for the museum to be scrapped. Jencks said: 鈥淔rank is one of my closest friends, but I don鈥檛 think this should be built. You can鈥檛 build a museum for tolerance that doesn鈥檛 obey the international understanding of what tolerance is.鈥�
Nir Barkat was voted mayor of Jerusalem in November last year and is understood to be keen to defuse the row, which has created potentially violent tensions in Jerusalem.
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