Residents and leftists claim plan designed to block development of two Palestinian neighborhoods in eastern half of city.
By Nir Hasson
The Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee is to consider a plan for a new national park in the Mount Scopus area, which Palestinian residents and leftist activists say is designed to block the development of two Palestinian neighborhoods in the east of the city.
The plan's explanatory notes say Mount Scopus' eastern slopes are vital to the area's landscape and archaeology. But the residents of the adjacent Issawiya and A-Tur neighborhoods say the plan aims to prevent these communities from expanding and to enable the building of a Jewish settlement.
The new national park would be built on 734 dunams, which the Palestinians say is mostly private land.
"They took the whole mountain away from us, there's nothing we can do," says Maluk Abdullah of A-Tur. "It's driving people crazy."
in full:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/new-jerusalem-park-a-ruse-to-set-up-new-settlement-activists-say-1.399735