Plan to expand national park onto church-owned lands still appears on website of planning panel; parks authority: Project won’t be advanced without dialogue with church leaders.
By JACOB MAGID
Nuns pose for a selfie as they mark Palm Sunday on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Sunday, March 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority said Monday that it was withdrawing a controversial plan to expand a national park onto church-owned lands in East Jerusalem, amid opposition from local church leaders who denounced it as a “premeditated attack on the Christians in the Holy Land.”
The announcement came a day after a report by The Times of Israel exposing the project, which was slated to receive preliminary approval from the Jerusalem municipality’s Local Planning and Construction Committee approval on March 2.