Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority said Monday it was withdrawing from a contentious plan that would have included Christian holy places on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives as a national parks. This decision was made in response to a strong protest from major churches.
The Mount of Olives, east Jerusalem, rises above Jerusalem’s Old City. Its sites are sacred to three monotheistic faiths. Its slopes east of the Old City are dotted with churches belonging to different sects, which mark the traditional locations of Jesus’ life events.
The petition was signed by the Armenian, Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Catholic churches to Israel’s environment protection minister. His department is responsible for the Parks Authority. The churches voiced the deepest concern and objection to the plan, stating that it would disrupt the current state of affairs and aims for the confiscation and nationalization of one of Christianity’s holiest sites. Farid Jubran is the general counsel of Catholic Church’s Custody for the Holy Land. He stated that by making an area that contains church property part of a National Park, it was giving control to people who have only one agenda: to eradicate any non-Jewish characteristics from this mountain. Interview requests were not answered by Tamar Zandberg, Environmental Protection Minister.
The Nature and Parks Authority announced that it had frozen the plan shortly after the outcry of the churches. It was to be approved by Jerusalem’s planning commission on March 2.
The authority stated that it does not intend to advance the plan in the planning commission and that it is not ready for discussion without coordination with all relevant officials, churches included. Israeli rights groups and peace activists denounced the plan as an Israeli attempt to marginalize Palestinian residents, and increase the Jewish religious or national significance of Mount of Olives.
Rights groups Peace Now, Emek Shaveh and Ir Amim made a joint statement stating that the plan to extend Jerusalem Walls National Park to include parts of the Mount of Olives was one of many mechanisms Israel used in east Jerusalem to establish its sovereignty, marginalize non-Jewish presence, and prevent the development of Palestinian neighborhoods. This increased the pressure to push them from the Old City basin. Israel annexed east Jerusalem, including its Jewish, Christian, and Muslim holy places, in a 1967 Mideast war. The emotional heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for more than a century, the holy city is a focal point. Minor changes to Jerusalem’s fragile status could cause violence. While the Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of a future independent country, Israel considers it its capital.
(This story is not edited by Devdiscourse staff.
