After many months of slack Jerusalem construction law enforcement, the supervising bodies demolished an illegal Arab building on Tuesday.
The building was erected in 2007 but protracted legal proceedings delayed the demolition order until now, ten years after it was erected.
The demolition of the house built on National Park lands below Mount Scopus was designed to preserve the park area as part of the open areas around Jerusalem.
The plan for the park's establishment was presented in 2011, but after intense pressure from the heads of the adjacent Arab neighborhoods Issawiya and A-Tur, it was decided in September 2014 to reduce the park's zoning allotment.
Last month the Regavim organization, which monitors and litigates against unlicensed Palestinian or Bedouin construction, sent an urgent letter to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat requesting his intervention to promote adoption of a formal program for the two neighborhoods so that the committee may reconvene to discuss the plan for the National Park.
"It would be accurate to say that every passing day further complicates the situation on the ground," stated Attorney Boaz Arazi. "In the planned area there is massive dumping of building waste every weekend and worse than this - illegal building construction continues in the region with the goal of preventing the park's establishment. It is therefore of utmost importance and urgency to implement enforcement and supervisory procedures in the area and to expedite the approval of the plans for the park."