Carmel Park to lose thousands of dunams for Druze village project

The Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority (INPPA) has agreed to give up thousands of dunams of the Carmel Park for development of Carmel City, which is the unification of two Druze villages on Mount Carmel, Isfiya and Daliat al-Carmel.

INPPA director-general Eli Amitai is to sign a memorandum in the coming days regarding the boundaries of the Carmel Park with Carmel City Mayor, Akram Hassan and the head of the Interior Ministry's Northern District, Yigal Shachar.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) has harshly criticized the memorandum, calling it a serious blow to one of the country's most important parks.

According to the document, which has the blessing of Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra, an area of 2300 dunams will be taken from the park to allow the development of the city, which is entirely surrounded by it. A much smaller area, about 66 dunams, mostly state land, will be added to the park.

The document makes no mention of another area, which is in dispute, known as Mount Shokef. The INPPA wants to add this area to the park, but the Druze have strongly objected, because they say it is also slated for the development of the city.

The residents of Carmel City have been saying for years that the establishment of Carmel Park made it impossible for them to utilize private land within the park, and they have nowhere to expand. A result of the situation is illegal construction in the park. One of the goals of the memorandum is to change the situation and give building permits to private land owners.

The land to be subtracted from the park will not automatically become developed areas of Carmel City. The memorandum states that zoning will be determined by a master plan drafted by planning committees or an interministerial steering committee. It also states that as long as the areas are not rezoned, the local authority must prevent illegal construction in the park.

"This document is the beginning of the disintegration of the Carmel Park," Hava Lahav, of the SPNI's department of environmental conservation, said in response. "If it would finally solve the problem of private land [in the park], and if there were talks toward an arrangement with regard to Mount Shokef, then maybe we could live with the reduction. But the arrangement does nothing to this end, since privately-owned land in the park constitutes a total of 10,000 dunams."

Lahav also said the document means a reduction in the best areas of the park, which are home to rare nature and landscape treasures. "It has given the green light for other bodies to exert pressure to get more areas in the park in the future. Anybody who has not found a solution will bring pressure to bear and they know they'll get what they want," she added.