After 1998 any cooperation came to a halt. Without convening the board of cemetery the two congregations started to bury their deceased without informing the other side (three Evangelical burials one each in 1999, 2000 and 2001). In 2005 Bishop Riah Hanna Abu El-Assal told Protestant church representatives from Germany on their visit in Jerusalem that he is planning to convert Mount Zion Cemetery into a park. Jerusalem's Evangelical congregation of German language was completely surprised by this unilateral approach.