Summary
A court Sunday ordered a predominantly Jewish town in northern Israel to lift a ban on nonresident visitors to its parks, a prohibition that a rights group said aimed to keep Arabs out.
In instructing the town to lift the order, Judge Danny Sarfati stopped short of accusing it of racism and cited a legal opinion by Israel's attorney general, who said that municipal parks were public property open to all.
Afula imposed the prohibition a month ago, effectively cutting off access to the 10-hectare park by residents of nearby Arab villages who frequented the popular site.
In the nearby Arab village of Sulem, Nareman Shehadeh-Zoabi said he often brought his children to the park in Afula.
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