Minister of Tourism Benny Elon dedicated a new play space for the children of the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shimon HaTzaddik this morning. The area, transformed from an underground sewage pit previously used by Arab squatters, was donated by the Brecher and Allen families of New York.

Revitalization of the neighborhood, which surrounds the more-than-2,000-year-old tomb of Shimon HaTzaddik, began in 1998, and young couples who have moved into the area since then now have many small children – for whom the new recreation area was constructed. The neighborhood is less than half a mile north of Damascus Gate, and only a few hundred yards east of Jerusalem’s main artery running from the Old City to Ramat Eshkol and N’vei Yaakov.

Minister Elon, struggling to be heard above the children’s din, quipped that that kind of background noise was far preferable to the usual heckling he receives from Arab MKs when he speaks in the Knesset. Elon continues to be involved in various efforts to reclaim Jewish areas of Jerusalem taken over by Arabs.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 27th, 2003 and is filed under hotnews.