State Comptroller and Ombudsman, retired judge Micha Lindenstrauss, devoted a chapter in his annual report to the state of disrepair of the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives (called Har HaZeitim in Hebrew). The report was released Tuesday afternoon.
The Lindenstrauss report said that successive Israeli governments were aware of the serious problems at the site and intended to do something about them, “and yet the repair of the cemetery is being carried out at a snail's pace, the level of its maintenance is not sufficient, its security is sorely lacking, and vandalism and criminal acts continue to take place there, raising the danger that the funds and labor already invested in renovation work will have been in vain.”
The Comptroller noted that the cemetery is about 3,000 years old, and is one of the Jewish people's most important cemeteries, both religiously and historically. He estimated that it contains 60,000 graves at present.
Lindenstrauss noted with approval the decisions by the Director of the Prime Minister's Office in December, to appoint bodies that would supervise security at the cemetery.