إحياء زيارة مشهد الحسين في عسقلان هل تعتبر حالة عدالة انتقالية؟

Abstract

This article deals with the symbolic restoration of a holy Muslim mausoleum

  named “Mashhad Husayn's Head”, (a memorial site of the head of al-Husayn ibn Ali) located in Ashkelon. The Mashhad was exploded and demolished by the Israeli army following 1948 war. However, in 1980 the State of Israel allowed the descendants of the Shiite Fatimid community from India named the Bohra Da’udiyya to make a pilgrimage to it; and in 2000, a symbolic and modest structure in a shape of an open summer mosque was erected with the approval of the authorities. The question at the center of the article is: why, in the case of Ashkelon, did the Israeli government approve of reviving the pilgrimage to Mashhad Hussein, a Shiite place that is also revered by Sunnis? Is this a change in Israel's policy as part of “transitional justice” towards the Muslim minority and its representation in Israel’s public sphere or is it a change in policy based on other pragmatic considerations?