Israeli officials are preparing to advance an unprecedented project to expand a national park onto church-owned lands and Christian holy sites in East Jerusalem, sparking fierce opposition from local Christian leaders.
The move would not strip the landholders of their ownership, but it would give the government some authority over Palestinian and church properties and religious sites, the Times of Israel reported.
This step led church officials and rights groups to characterize the measure as a power grab and a threat to Christian presence in the Holy Land, the site added.
Opponents of the project also underlined the ties between the state body advancing the plan and the nationalist groups that are working to anchor Jewish presence in contested East Jerusalem areas, including the turbulent Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Rights groups believe the planned park expansion is part of a larger nationalist strategy to “encircle” Jerusalem’s Old City by taking control of adjacent areas of East Jerusalem.
The plan would see the borders of the Jerusalem Walls National Park extended to include a large section of the Mount of Olives along with additional parts of the Kidron and Ben Hinnom Valleys.
It is scheduled to come before the Jerusalem municipality’s Local Planning and Construction Committee for preliminary approval on March 2.
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA), which is promoting the project, said the expansion is designed to restore long-neglected lands and better preserve historical landscapes, and that it will not harm the church properties incorporated into the national park.
However, church leaders stressed that their communities are under threat by radical Israeli groups.
Last week, a visiting delegation of Democrats from the US House of Representatives was briefed on the matter and subsequently raised their concern regarding the project with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett during a meeting on Thursday.
Bennett did not appear familiar with the previously unpublicized plan, but he told the US lawmakers that he was doing everything he could to reduce tensions in Jerusalem and prevent steps that might trigger new violence, according to two congress sources.
On Friday, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theopolis III, Catholic Church Custos of the Holy Land Francesco Patton and Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Nourhan Manougian penned a letter to Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg, whose office oversees the INPA, urging her to take steps to get the planned expansion canceled.
“Although the plan is officially presented by the INPA, it seems that it was put forward and is being orchestrated, advanced and promoted by entities whose apparent sole purpose is to confiscate and nationalize one of the holiest sites for Christianity and alter its nature,” the church leaders wrote. They were referring in their remarks to the Mount of Olives, where Christians believe several key events in Jesus’s life took place.
“This is a brutal measure that constitutes a direct and premeditated attack on the Christians in the Holy Land, on the churches and their ancient, internationally guaranteed rights in the Holy City,” the letter read.
“Under the guise of protecting green spaces, the plan appears to serve an ideological agenda that denies the status and rights of Christians in Jerusalem.”
The church leaders also sent the letter to the Jerusalem consuls general of France, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Spain, the UK, Belgium and Sweden, in an apparent effort to mobilize international support for their opposition.
A spokeswoman for the INPA said that while the churches may not support the project, the INPA hopes to reach out to all of them before the planning committee discussion next month to discuss the matter.
She further insisted that the project would not harm the churches and is designed to preserve the historic terrain, as national parks are meant to do.
But church leaders aren’t convinced and the move appears poised to intensify the already heated debate they have been having with Israeli authorities.
