Independence Park (Jerusalem)

Independence Park (Hebrew: גן העצמאות‎, Gan ha-Atsma'ut) is a municipal park bounded by Agron Street, King George Street, Hillel Street, and Menashe Ben Yisrael Street in central Jerusalem.[1] It is Jerusalem's second largest park.[2][3]

Aerial view of the park. August 2013

Independence Park in 2007

The "Mamillah" district of Jerusalem in 1946, including the "Mamillah Cemetery (Moslem)" and the "Mamillah Pool".

The park was founded on top of the Western part of the Mamilla cemetery, the main Muslim cemetery of Jerusalem, founded in the seventh century A.D. Several of the prophet Muhammad's Sahaba (followers) as well as many of Saladin's soldiers are buried in Mamilla. It was the largest Muslim cemetery in Palestine.

After the 1948 war, the cemetery was incorporated into the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem. The cemetery was neglected and largely bulldozed by Israeli authorities in the 1950s. By 1967 less than ten percent of the graves remained.[4][5][6][7]

The park, rededicated as the Harry Wilf Park by the Jerusalem Foundation in 1996,[8] is home to the Lion's cave. Jewish, Muslim, and Christian legends all maintain that the remains of their faithful are buried there, and that a lion, created by God, was placed there to guard the dead.[9] Jewish tradition states that the bones of Jews killed by the Seleucid Greeks are buried there. Muslims state that Allah transferred remains from the nearby Mamilla cemetery to the cave to save them from a fire. Christians believe that the cave houses the remains of monks who were massacred by the Persians in 614.[9] Some Muslim graves from the 13th century remain at the bottom of the park.[10]

The park is also one of the gay cruising areas in Jerusalem, and has become a focal point for many LGBT activities, including the annual gay pride parade.[11]