JERUSALEM, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- A Jerusalem district planning board has okayed construction of a National Defense College near the Mount of Olives on land in dispute with the Palestinians. The 42,000-square-meter structure, according to The Jerusalem Post, is to be erected adjacent to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Mount Scopus campus, from where it overlooks the Old City, less than one kilometer away.
"This is a crazy plan to build a military college in one of the most sensitive areas under dispute," a Peace Now official said in July, when the plan was first unveiled.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem, including the area in question, as its "sovereign and eternal capital."
The Palestinians, however, have indicated that they want for a future state much of the city's eastern areas which Israel came into possession of as a result of the 1967 war.
"This will inevitably harm the status of the State of Israel and the (Israel Defense Forces) in the world," said Peace Now's Hagit Ofran.
"People in the world respect our army as part of our sovereignty, but to put this in a very sensitive area, you're inviting them to boycott the Israeli army."
Peace Now expects the public will likely submit significant opposition to the plan within an allocated two-month filing window.
"Bringing the military academy to this sensitive spot is provocative, and if we may add, not so smart, of our government," the left-of-center group said in a statement on Saturday.
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