Bab al-Rahma Cemetery

Bab al-Rahma Cemetery
Details
Location	Jerusalem
Coordinates	31°46′44″N 35°14′13″E / 31.77889°N 35.23694°E / 31.77889; 35.23694

Bab al-Rahma cemetery is located along the eastern wall of Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.^[1] It extends from Bab Al-Asbat (Lions' Gate) to the end of the Al-Aqsa Mosque wall near the Umayyad palaces on the southern side.^[2] It has an area of about 23 acres. The Bab al-Rahma cemetery contains many graves of the Companions, most notably Ubadah ibn al-Samit and Shadad ibn Aus, and on the graves of Mujahideen who participated in the conquest of Jerusalem during the Omari and Ayyubid conquests.^[3] The road to Lions' Gate separates the cemetery in two, Bab al-Rahma Cemetery to the south and Al-Asbat Gate Cemetery to the North.^[4]

Since at least 2011,^[5] Palestinian sources assert that the Israeli government intends to convert part of the cemetery into a biblical garden.^[6][7][8] According to Israel's courts and Nature and Parks Authority, work near the cemetery is minor and no displacement of graves is allowed.^[9] Despite the restriction, burial activities continue with adding new graves on a regular basis, providing ongoing water contamination of the Gihon spring in the City of David.^{[citation needed]}