JERUSALEM — To the untrained eye the rocky slopes of eastern Mount Scopus appear as serene as any other Jerusalem landscape. However, Jerusalem’s declaration of this land as the newest addition to an Israeli national park has incited opposition among the neighboring Arab villages, who see the move as an attempt to cheat them out of a future.
Before obtaining official authorization, the Jerusalem municipality and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority sent bulldozers and tractors last week to begin the preliminary construction of the Mount Scopus Slopes National Park.
The project is set to incorporate approximately 750 dunams (75 hectares) of open land spanning south of the Hebrew University campus through the Arab villages of Al-Isawwiya and A-Tur.
Residents claim that most of the disputed land is privately owned, and was intended to provide the solution to expected population growth and public development initiatives of the Arab communities.
Local residents backed by leftist organizations including Bimkom, Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity, Ir Amim, and Emek Shaveh, say the park’s aim is to sabotage the expansion of the East Jerusalem neighborhoods, not preserve archaeological treasures.
The area’s minimal archaeological character does not justify the plans, and could instead easily be preserved without the establishment of a park, according to experts.
“The issue is not the archaeological worth of the lands, but rather the worthlessness of neighborhoods where people are today living,” says Efrat Cohen-Bar, an architect from the organization Bimkom. “These already dense villages are surrounded by impassable urban elements, and have no other place to expand.”
She also points to archaeological findings on the nearby Hebrew University campus, which has not been designated as part of the park, as proof that the plan by the Jerusalem municipality intends to execute a political agenda under the thin guise of the park’s positive and a-political connotations.
“At first, years ago, we didn’t resist because we all lived together, grew up together,” said Al-Isawwiya Council leader Omar Adiya Abu-Humus, who has been fighting the park project for years. “The park gives a place to animals, but there will not be a place for my son to be raised, so is an animal better than my son?”
Authorities insist that the park’s development has followed standard procedure, and mentioned that the construction will in fact prevent the illegal dumping which has been damaging the quality of life for local residents, the Jerusalem municipality stated in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The Mount Scopus plan is part of a larger scheme set to span from Jerusalem’s Old City walls into the E-1 zone, an area which has attracted broad international criticism. The completion of the park would connect Jerusalem to the largest West Bank settlement Maale Adumim, in effect detaching the city from the Palestinian territories, and raise serious challenges to the two-state solution.
In 2000 the Tzurim Valley, of comparable implications to Al-Isawiyya and A-Tur, was officially declared a national park, and four other East Jerusalem areas are marked to be considered for incorporation.