In a surprise move, the National Planning and Building Council decided Tuesday to postpone for two months its decision on whether to authorize the Safdie Plan for the massive westward expansion of Jerusalem.

The council intends to examine the issue more extensively before issuing its final decision.

Just prior to the council's postponement, hundreds of people on Tuesday protested outside the Interior Ministry in Jerusalem against the expansion of the capital city across undeveloped hills.

	Advertisement

Knesset members Michael Melchior (Labor) and Yossi Beilin (Meretz) joined the protest together with former MK Omri Sharon.

Environmental groups maintain that construction of almost 20,000 new housing units on the hills outside the city will have a negative effect on open spaces, and will hurt the city's center.

"This is a horrible plan that will destroy Jerusalem," one of the activists said during the protest. "This is also bad from a social perspective, as it will prevent the rehabilitation of neighborhoods in the center of the city. There won't be any public transportation to the new development and there will be thus be more private vehicles on the roads."

The municipality believes the plan is a chance to save the capital, which has experienced net migration over the last several years.

But enviromentalists counter that there is still unused land available for construction within the present city confines, and that further expanding the city will allow Jerusalem's depressed center to decay further.

The area in question includes land outside Mevasseret Zion that was annexed to the city in 1992, and includes a large swath of forested hills and open space which convervationists had earmarked for a national park.

Yael Elyashar, coordinator of a coalition opposing the plan, said Tuesday that the plan would cause an "ecologocal, economic, and environmental disaster."

"Approval of the Safdie Plan will immediately bring all the developers to build west of Jerusalem, and will torpedo the improvement of Jerusalem, with all of its current problems," she told Army Radio.