Iranian authorities are threatening to destroy the historic tomb of Esther and Mordechai in the city of Hamedan, 200 miles west of Tehran, in favor of constructing a consular office for Palestine, the Alliance for Rights of All Minorities in Iran (ARAM) said in a Twitter post on Sunday. The organization claims that members of Irans formidable Basij paramilitary force attempted to raid the historic site in what it called an act of revenge against the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan by President Trump. Esther and Mordechai were biblical Jewish heroes who saved their people from a massacre in a story known as #Purim. Their burial site has been a significant Jewish landmark for Jews and history buffs around the world, ARAM said. In December 2010, Iranian protesters tried to breach the compound citing fears that Israel might damage the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
