BEDOUINS in a Palestinian village have pleaded with Israel’s supreme court to block the construction of a water storage tank on a Muslim cemetery.

Residents of Hashem Zana rejected a proposal to move the graves after national water company Mekorot fenced off the site and “posted signs offering to help residents in moving the graves.”

No work has begun, but residents have filed a petition against the plan at the supreme court, hoping that it  will order Merekot to spare the burial ground.

The cemetery was in use from the 1948 Nakba until the 1990s, when residents started to inter their relatives in another graveyard.

Merekot located the site, which belongs to the al-Ethman family, in 2017. Construction was paused after “a concrete structure identified as a grave was discovered at the site, alongside several piles of stones.”

Salam al-Ethman, whose grandfather is buried in the cemetery, said the residents do not object to the construction of a water tank, but they want it built on another hill nearby, “which professionals say is just as suitable as the designated site.

“We will be willing to co-operate in any way. Just leave the graves alone,” he said.