Israel's National Planning and Building Council decided Wednesday to suspend plans to build a national park on the slopes of Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. The decision was made contrary to recommendations made by Jerusalem's District Planning and Building Council. The decision to suspend the park's construction followed appeals filed by the residents of the adjacent east Jerusalem neighborhoods of Issawiya and A-Tur, as well as appeals by several left-wing rights groups. The Arab neighborhoods' residents claimed that the planned 160-acre park would prevent them from expanding in the future, and that it compromised their territorial continuity. The Interior Ministry and the Environmental Protection Ministry have been at loggerheads over the issue, with the former promoting the park's construction and the latter opposing it. "I applaud the council for accepting our position on the matter," Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz said Wednesday. A statement issued by Bimkom -- Planners for Planning Rights in Israel, which was one of the nonprofit organizations that joined the petition against the park's construction, said that those fighting the project "still have their work cut out for them. We need to convince the District [Planning and Building] Council to provide these neighborhoods with what they really need -- sufficient land for expansion."
Plans to build national park in east Jerusalem suspended
National Planning and Building Council decides to freeze construction of new national park on slopes of Mount Scopus in Jerusalem over petition by residents of two Arab neighborhoods, who claim park's outline would compromise their territorial continuity.
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