Court scraps plan for new neighborhood next to Jerusalem zoo

The Jerusalem District Court scrapped approval for the construction of a new neighborhood in the capital following appeals from local residents and an animal rights group that its location near the city’s Biblical Zoo would cause harm to the animals there.

In their appeals, residents of the southwestern Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Massuah — which is adjacent to the new planned neighborhood of Morodot Massuah — and the animal rights group Let the Animals Live claimed that the noise and dust from the construction site would harm the animals’ wellbeing, the Haaretz daily reported Thursday.

Despite the testimony of the Zoological Society of London’s Zoological Director David Field that it was possible to take measures to minimize harm to the animals, Judge Arnon Darel decided to nix construction after accepting the plaintiffs’ claims that Field was not an expert on the matter and that measures such as planting trees along the zoo’s fence would not be sufficient to protect the animals.

Darel also ordered that the plan be returned to the local council for additional study on its impact on the animals before it will again be considered.

Let the Animals Live’s lawyer Yossi Wolfson praised the decision, saying that it was “a victory for the weak, whose freedom was discounted, over real estate interests.”

The animals “do not need to be exposed to the tortures of living next to a huge construction site, without any possibly of escape. The right to a life of minimal suffering — even for animals — is more important than real estate gains,” Haaretz quoted him as saying.