More Museum of Tolerance Irony

What is it about Museums of Tolerance that unite people against them? The last one was a simple spat about planning permission.

This time, the plans to build a Museum of Tolerance on top of a former Muslim cemetery have lead to a Jewish-Muslim coalition to block the plans. It almost warms my heart to see people breaking down barriers in order to work together for a common goal of keeping something sacred.

Weirdly, the site is currently a car park. The argument used in the courts was that nobody objected to parking your cars on the dead. Still, I don’t think it’s a great example of tolerance to point out other people’s failings. Then again, they never claimed to be a Museum of Tact.

To me, I think there is a greater shame in this. Tolerance Museums do great work and are important in the theatre of global politics. We need museums to bring us together and act as seeds of definition in the scary swirling mass that is the globalised civilisation. If this museum goes ahead or not, it will forever be tainted with the actions that lead up to its founding as being entirely in opposition to its fundamental mission. This can only damage the concept of a museum.

Also, I hate the architecture. Nothing says Tolerance than a big ol’ wall in a city that’s a bit sensitive to the meaning of big ol’ walls.