National Park Plan approved over confiscated Palestinian lands in East Jerusalem
"The National Park plan is illegal and dangerous, as it will deepen Israel’s control over Palestinian lands in East Jerusalem"
On 10 September 2014, the Israeli National Council for Planning and Building (NCPB) issued its decision to approve the establishment of the "National Park - The Slopes of Mount Scopus" project. This project will annex nearly 700 dunams of lands belonging to the Palestinian villages of Al-'Issawiya and At-Tur in occupied East Jerusalem.
The decision cites some members’ claims that the plan achieves the principle of "preservation of the natural landscape", and furthers "cultural, religious and historical" principles. The Council's decision fully adopts the Israeli Jewish and Zionist narrative of the history of Jerusalem, pointing out that this area is the "place where Israelites entered the Promised Land" and the road that "King David took when he escaped from Jerusalem." According to the decision, it is also the place where Jeremiah, "one of the Hebrew prophets, came through when he arrived in Jerusalem," with reference to the biblical narrative.
The Council critiqued the local and national committees for approving the plan "without conducting the necessary checks on the impact of the plan on the Al-'Issawiya and At-Tur villages in terms of their future development." However, the Council did not consider this deficiency to be a sufficient problem to warrant the cancellation of the plan based on the objectors' requests. The Council only decided to return the plan to the national committee for planning and building to look into its borders, and into the question of whether or not the plan obstructs the needs of the two villages.
The Council’s decision to approve the plan and refer it back to the National Committee for some reconsiderations, if any, came after many appeals were submitted against the decision of the National Committee approving the plan. Adalah and the Arab Center for Alternative Planning, in coordination with the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, and other legal organizations submitted many appeals in the name of the organizations and the Al-'Issawiya development committee.
The council rejected the objectors' claims that the plan is "illegal because it is applied on occupied lands and therefore violates international humanitarian law. These international laws prevent significant changes from being made in the occupied territories unless there is a military need or if it is in the interest of the protected population, namely, families in East Jerusalem." The Council instead views East Jerusalem as an area in which Israeli law applies and where Israeli authorities have the right to implement land projects.
Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara emphasized in the appeal that any amendments to the plan made by the planning and building committees would be "very marginal and will not change the colonial nature of the plan." Despite the danger in annexing lands and what may result by those acts, "more important is the principle issue, which is that Israel seeks to deepen its control and influence over East Jerusalem and change the character of the region and its Palestinian identity, and promote the settlements through geographic contiguity between the settlements."
The Civic Coalition condemned the NCPB’s decision to approve the plan to establish a "national park" on the lands of Al-'Issawiya and At-Tur. The Coalition considers the decision to be dangerous in that it reinforces the narrative and religious claims that aim to tighten control over the occupied city and "Judaize" its sites. This plan is only one in a series of Israeli policies whose overall aim is to forcefully displace Palestinian Jerusalemite families.
