On Friday morning, around thirty Israeli joined Palestinian residents in an attempt to clear a road leading out of Issawiya that was blocked last week by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA). Together, we worked with shovels, picks, and bare hands to break down the pile of rubble blocking the path.

Following a petition submitted by the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement to the Jerusalem Municipality, the construction work was frozen, but much of the damage has already been done. The INPA, a governmental body charged with the protection of nature, landscape and heritage in Israel, destroyed a road and piled the rubble in a way that would prevent the residents of that part of Issawiya to travel on this road.

Israelis and Palestinians unblocking road in Issawiya on Friday, January 20, 2012 (Photo: Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity)

Clearly, the INPA has the advantage of powerful tools and the backing of a state whose mechanisms explicitly favor Jewish settlement over the basic rights of Palestinian residents. But as we stood there, struggling to move the pile of rubble with our hands and shovels, it was clear that we also have an advantage: the advantage of being right.

The planned national park, located adjacent to the E1 area, on the slopes of Mt. Scopus, would constitute an insurmountable obstacle to any possible future peace agreement involving Jerusalem. Most immediately, it would “choke off” a number of Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, and deny residents access to their private lands.

Click here for a letter and call to action.

Related:

A call for action: Stop the Slopes of Mount Scopus “National Park”

A New Plan to Establish a National Park Threatens to Choke Issawiya and A-Tur