Saree Makdisi on Excavating Memory In Jerusalem

In 2004, construction began in Jerusalem on the local branch of the Los Angeles-based Museum of Tolerance, designed by the leading American architect, Frank Gehry. The museum is now being built over the remains of what had been the largest and most important Muslim cemetery in Palestine, which had been in continual use from the time of the Crusades up until 1948. Professor Saree Makdisi examines the clash between the two competing claims to the same site, and offers a paradigmatic case to explore and rethink the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, since all of the elements of the larger conflict are also in play in the struggle over this specific site. For more info and speaker's biography see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2009/excavating_memory_jerusalem.shtml