Following the directive of the Defense Minister, the subcommittee for planning and licensing in the Civil Administration today approved the building permit in favor of promoting the Cave of the Patriarchs accessibility project (click for details).
The Defense Ministry noted tonight that this is an important humanitarian project, the purpose of which is to enable people with disabilities to reach the Cave of the Patriarchs.
The project will include the construction of an elevator near the Cave of the Patriarchs building as well as an access path that will allow people with disabilities to ascend from the parking lot to the site plaza.
The accessibility program was designed by a dedicated professional team, while maintaining a high professional standard of accessibility and giving weight to the engineering, religious and archaeological complexity of the site.
It should be noted that the plan was approved after years of legal and public struggle, and despite the objections of the Arab MKs, the Hebron Arab Municipality and the Palestinian Authority, who claimed that the cave is a strictly Muslim site and that the State of Israel has no authority to carry out any measures to increase accessibility at the site.