The Governor of Bethlehem, Major General Jibreen Al-Bakri, the Mayor of Bethlehem, Lawyer Anton Salman, and Adnan Ajarmeh, representing Popular Committee for Aida Camp Services, signed a cooperation agreement to establish, manage and operate the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate Park in Bethlehem, on the remainder of the Patriarchate’s plot of land at the site The lot adjacent to Aida camp, with an area of 10,569. Popular Committee for Aida Camp Services will work to establish the park and provide the necessary funding for this, in addition to operating and managing it during the 10-year period agreed upon with the municipality. Earlier, the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, represented by His Beatitude, signed Patriarch Nourhan Manougian and the Bethlehem Municipal Council signed a lease agreement for the land owned by the Patriarchate for the purpose of establishing the public garden, in the presence and patronage of the Governor of Bethlehem, the Director General of the Directorate of Local Government in Bethlehem Shukri Radaideh, and the head of the Patriarchate’s properties, Father Barrett Yeretzian.
In turn, the Bethlehem Municipal Council organized the agreement with the Popular Committee for Aida Camp Services to establish the park. A decision was issued by the Council of Ministers to cover the government’s lease of land for the Patriarchate on behalf of the Bethlehem Municipal Council.
It is mentioned that the site, after the erection of the apartheid wall, became a health hazard and was used as a dumping ground for waste and building waste, and that the establishment of this garden constitutes a qualitative leap for the site and a new outlet for the people of the governorate.
