Last update - 00:00 29/10/2006
Ministerial panel backs bill likely to halt J'lem expansion
By Zafrir Rinat and Esther Sandberg, Haaretz Correspondents
The Ministerial Legislative Committee on Sunday decided to support a bill that if approved by Knesset would disrupt a plan to expand the city of Jerusalem westward into the surrounding open hills.
Acting Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit is likely to appeal the committee's decision, and bring the matter to the ministerial plenum for ruling. Sheetrit is concerned that such a law would set a precedent against expansion of other areas and could introduce new building restrictions.
The bill, which the ministerial committee referred to as "the law for the protection of the Jerusalem hills," would delineate an expanse of open space west of the city as a protected area, including the territory included in a current plan for the expansion West Jerusalem.
The building plan, drafted by and named after Canadian architect Moshe Safdie, is essentially a plan for a new city cut off from the parent, on the ridges and open spaces to its west.
It calls for the construction of some 20,000 densely-constructed housing units at two separate sites, Mount Heret and the Lavan Ridge; half a million square meters of commercial and industrial space; an infrastructure network; and roads and bridges. All of these are to be built on tough terrain that spans some 26 square kilometers of natural and planted forests.
If the ministerial committee's bill were passed, it would forbid any building on the expanse of land delineated as a "protected area," aside from plans already in the works, the building of infrastructure, or the expansion of existing villages and communities.
The Safdie plan has not yet been approved by the National Building and Planning Council due to a number of set backs, will be up again for consideration in two months. Unless the ministerial bill is given government approval before then, it will have little effect on the implementation of the Jerusalem expansion plan.
The ministerial bill was proposed by MK Yuri Stern (Yisrael Beiteinu), in coordination with the environmental organization Adam Teva V'Din and was signed by 40 members of Knesset.