Israeli authority backs down from Mount of Olives park plan

Source: Associated Press

Israeli authority backs down from Mount of Olives park plan

By ILAN BEN ZION
February 21, 2022

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority on Monday said it was backing down from a contentious plan to encompass Christian holy sites on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives in a national park following vociferous outcry from major churches.

The Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem rises above Jerusalem’s Old City and its sites are holy to three monotheistic faiths. Its slopes to the east of the Old City are studded with churches of various sects that mark the traditional places of events in the life of Jesus.

The Armenian, Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches petitioned Israel’s environmental protection minister, whose department is in charge of the Parks Authority, in a letter last week.

The churches 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.”

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/travel-lifestyle-religion-jerusalem-israel-6479cbbc0320bc6ad343bcfd1c24765a


Clouds hover over the Mount of Olives and the Church of All Nations in the Garden of Gethsemane, in East Jerusalem, Monday, Feb. 21, 2022. Israel's Nature and Parks Authority says it is backing down from a plan to encompass Christian holy sites on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives in a national park after vociferous outcry from major churches. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)