Tourism Minister Uzi Baram has come out in opposition to a plan to convert a former Israeli army command headquarters in Nazareth into a prison for as many as 1,000 inmates.
The Nazareth City Council has been fighting the plan, charging it would taint the city’s image as a holy place of pilgrimage. The legislative body has threatened to bring the Vatican into the fray if need be.
In a letter to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Baram said the prison would jeopardize his plans to develop the city as a major tourist attraction.
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