The museum's building on a part of the ground of what was once the corner of a Muslim cemetery, but which since the 1960s has been a parking lot, faced criticism from some Israeli and American Jews. The Mamilla Cemetery, of which a part of the project will be built over, contains the graves of Islamic figures, as well as several Mamluk tombs. The SWC asserts that the cemetery was long ago deconsecrated by Islamic leaders, and that secular Arab leaders prior to the creation of the State of Israel had planned various development projects there.