Israel Freezes Plan To Expropriate Church Lands At The Mount Of Olives To Expand National Park

The Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Israel, is described in the New Testament as where Jesus prayed before his crucifixion. Photo by Gil Zohar.

JERUSALEM— Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority froze a controversial plan Feb. 21 to enlarge the Jerusalem Walls National Park that would enclose 68 acres of the Mount of Olives and the Kidron and Ben Hinnom valleys — which include many Christian holy sites.

Local church leaders had voiced their strong opposition to the INPA’s plan, denouncing it as a “premeditated attack on the Christians in the Holy Land,” according to a joint statement by the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, Theopolis III; the Roman Catholic Church custos of the Holy Land, Francesco Patton; and the Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem, Nourhan Manougian. The three leaders petitioned Israel’s environmental protection minister Tamar Zandberg, whose ministry is in charge of the INPA, to shelve the expansion plan.

While the Mount of Olives rising east of the Old City includes sites that are holy to the three monotheistic faiths, its slope is especially important for Christians because of the various churches that mark the events in the life of Jesus — from Palm Sunday, when he arrived in the holy city, to Friday, when he was arrested, tried and executed. The INPA said the expansion was meant to restore long-neglected lands and better preserve historical landscapes and that it would not harm the church properties incorporated into the national park.

The church leaders expressed the “gravest concern and unequivocal objection” to the plan, saying it would disrupt the longstanding state of affairs and aims to “confiscate and nationalize one of the holiest sites for Christianity and alter its nature.

“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 said. “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.”

While Zandberg did not respond to requests for comment, shortly after the churches' outcry, the INPA said it was freezing the project, which was slated to receive preliminary approval from the Jerusalem municipality’s Local Planning and Construction Committee on March 2. That hearing was originally scheduled to take place on April 10 — Palm Sunday — but was recently moved up.

The INPA said it has “no intention of advancing the plan in the planning committee and it is not ready for discussion without coordination and communication with all relevant officials, including the churches, in the area.”

Israeli rights groups and peace activists had denounced the plan as an attempt by Israeli authorities to marginalize Palestinian residents and increase the Jewish religious and national significance of the Mount of Olives.

In a joint statement, rights groups Bimkom, Emek Shaveh, Ir Amim and Peace Now said the plan to extend the Jerusalem Walls National Park to include sections of the Mount of Olives was part of “various mechanisms used by Israel in east Jerusalem to entrench its sovereignty, to marginalize non-Jewish presence and to prevent much needed development of Palestinian neighborhoods hereby increasing the pressure to push them out of the Old City basin.”

Israel captured East Jerusalem and its Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed it in a move unrecognized by most of the international community.

The holy city is the emotional epicenter of the more than century of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and even minor changes to the fragile status quo in Jerusalem have the potential to erupt into violence. The Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state, while Israel considers the city its united capital.

Gil Zohar was born in Toronto, Canada and moved to Jerusalem, Israel in 1982. He is a journalist writing for The Jerusalem Post, Segula magazine, and other publications. He’s also a professional tour guide who likes to weave together the Holy Land’s multiple narratives.