February 22
05:02
2016
An Israeli government plan to build a new town near the site of a historic battle between crusaders and Muslim icon Saladin — and where Napoleon also fought many years later — has itself come under fire. Scholars, farmers and even members of the Druze minority meant to benefit from the project have criticised the plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Israel's National Planning and Building Council approved it in January, with the government describing it as the first new town for members of the secretive offshoot of Shiite Islam since the Jewish state was established in 1948.
