From Jerusalem Newspaper Al-Ayam:  The Arab Center for Alternative Planning and Adalah, in coordination with the Civic Coalition for Defending the Palestinians' Rights in Jerusalem, submitted an objection to the District Planning and Building Committee against the State plan to build a "national park" on the territory of Issawiya and Tur.  This plan will confiscate 732 dunums of land from these towns.

The objection made by the Attorney Suhad Bishara from Adalah, ACAP's urban planner Enaya Banna Geries, and Basem Darwish, Chairman of the Development Committee in Issawiya, stressed that the land which will be used in the plan is Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, and therefore the plan is fully against the international humanitarian law, which prohibits making fundamental changes in the occupied territories, and also requires that the use of land only benefit of the local population in the region.

The objection: "The plan prevents the possibilities of the development of the town of Issawiya, which today has a population of 15,000 citizens, and the town of Tur, which has a population of 26,000 citizens.   The proposed plan will prevent the town's territorial contiguity between neighborhoods and other areas, and future development.  Furthermore, the plan will link this area with the area (E1) and areas of other Israeli settlement,  through layout of structural maps in the West Bank, in coordination with the authority of the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim.

The plan comes with another plan in the region adjacent, which confiscates more than 500 dunums of land from the towns of Anata and Issawiya in order to establish a waste site and other infrastructure.

This plan is a serious violation of the right of the Palestinian population in the region for ownership and dignity, as well as affects their right to develop their surroundings.  It confiscates their vital resources for planning and economic development, as  well as hinders the future needs for development of the two towns; Tur needs an additional 1,700 dunams of land to meet its population needs until the year 2030, while Issawiya needs more than 1,100 dunams of land.