Serious differences over administration of East Jerusalem, the recently acquired section of the city, were seen today to have developed between the Interior Ministry and the Jerusalem City Council.
Spokesmen for the Ministry announced Sunday that an administrative order has been issued, constituting the Old City and its outskirts as a special planning region under the jurisdiction of a subcommittee of the District Town Planning Commission. The latter will be appointed next week and will be given all authority in planning for the Old City and its immediate environs. The subcommittee will consist of representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, as well as of other Ministries and of the municipality.
The Jerusalem City Council immediately met in special session to register its unanimous protest against the decision of the Ministry. The Council adopted a resolution declaring the Ministry’s action to be an “usurpation of the rights and jurisdictions of the city and of its planning commission.”
Further opposition to Government plans to expropriate all parts of the Old City developed today when leaders of the religious parties spoke against them in the Knesset (Parliament). Speakers of both Agudat Israel and the National Religious Party declared that yeshivas and other religious bodies possessing land would be the main sufferers from “up building” proposals for the area.
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