The following story by my former Haaretz colleague Aviv Lavie - now with Maariv - sheds light on this scandal. The story is complex and Aviv seems to struggle with the details and with the magnitude of the outrage, but should be lauded for the investigative effort.

Here is his piece, from today's Maariv:

by Aviv Lavie -- It is very hot in the City of David.  The national park, which is very close to the Western Wall, and is one of the most important archeological and historical sites in Jerusalem, if not in the entire world, currently absorbs large doses of scorching sunshine.  This does not deter the visitors: The entrance plaza was filled with guests this week, producing a cocktail of languages and accents.  Some came to Israel to throw a discus or run slowly in the Maccabiah competitions, and as a bonus received a tour with Biblical overtones.
The entrance to Hezekiah's Tunnel [known in Hebrew as the Shiloah tunnel] is particularly busy.  Perhaps it is because the guests can imagine the sounds of the stonecutters' hammers, or because the thought of a chilly, damp haven evokes their excitement.  Nearly every Israeli who has taken school trips has visited Hezekiah's Tunnel.  If you come here today, you will be asked to pay NIS 25 for an entrance ticket.  If you want a guided tour, it is NIS 55.
Although this is an official national park, under the purview of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA), the money you pay will, at least in part, reach other hands.  These are private hands, with an unmistakable political character: The hands of Elad (acronym for "To the City of David"), an openly right wing NPO, which works vigorously to promote Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, and has been operating the City of David national park in the past years.  Not only the ticket office is operated by Elad: The guides, the content of the tours and the elaborate web site are also in its hands.  At the entrance to the national park hangs the symbol of the INPA, along with the golden lyre--the symbol of the City of David visitor center, which is [run by] Elad.  "It's as if they were to take a national park with political and historical sensitivities, and place it in the hands of B'Tselem," said a veteran environmentalist this week.  "Within five minutes, a great commotion would arise."
Ideological agenda
The fact that Elad operates in the City of David and not, for example, in a nature reserve in the coastal plain, is not accidental, of course.  In the past years the NPO members have purchased a great many properties in the Silwan village, in which the City of David is located, in a process consisting of struggles, petitions and counter-petitions, and turned them into fortified compounds.  The Jewish-Arab struggle for every house is waged in the familiar Wild West style of East Jerusalem.  But how exactly does it happen that the INPA, a professional body that is charged with preserving natural values and heritage, places the management of a national asset of the first order in the hands of a political group?  When Elad launched a campaign to encourage visits to the City of David, its director David Beeri said: "Our goal is for the public to know that the City of David is located 200 meters away from the Old City, and therefore in any negotiation it must remain in Israel's hands.  We must not give it up."
In the song that greets the visitors to the City of David web site, the vocalist sings that "it all started here--I will remain here forever."  The fact that such a sensitive site is placed in the hands of a political organization has repercussions, of course.  In the past years, it has been repeatedly alleged that in the guided tours, in the three-dimensional presentations, in the atmosphere, the Elad personnel color the history, archeology and politics of the site in well defined colors.  Yonatan Mizrahi is an archeologist who conducts alternative tours in the City of David: "After three hours on an Elad tour, you are convinced that you are at a site that is solely Jewish.  Canaanite, Byzantine, Muslim and of course Palestinian findings are shunted aside.  Jerusalem has 4,000 years of history, and they concentrate on the glorious stories of Solomon, David and Hezekiah, for whom there are no archeological findings linking them to the site.  When you present the story this way to hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world, it is a tool with a great deal of political power and a way of justifying the act of settling the area."
The chain of events that led to the current peculiar situation was recently exposed by the Ir Amim NPO, which belongs to the opposite political orientation to that of Elad.  In a report written by veteran journalist Meron Rappaport, "Dark Deal in Silwan," the developments concerning the management of the park are described.  After the Six-Day War, a national park surrounding the walls of Jerusalem was declared, covering 1,100 dunams: The City of David national park, which covers 24 dunams, and consists of Hezekiah's Tunnel, the Shiloah Pool and the excavation site in the City of David, is included in this area.
In 1997, after Binyamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister and Ariel Sharon was appointed infrastructure minister, a contract was signed between the Israel Lands Administration and Elad, which gave the NPO a permit for security and maintenance of the City of David national park for seven years.  According to Rappaport's report, the contract was signed without a tender.  Moreover, it was concealed from the Israel Antiquities Authority, and signed against the position of the professional echelon in the INPA, but was done with the support of then-environment minister Rafael Eitan.
The main opponents to the move were the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and senior archeologists in it.  Following a petition to the High Court of Justice, the Israel Lands Administration was forced to cancel the permit it issued, and in 1999 the High Court of Justice summed up the affair by determining that "in the future, the authorities will act on this matter by law."  In 2001, the State Attorney's Office notified the High Court of Justice that the permit given to Elad had been canceled.  Nevertheless, in 2002 the INPA renewed the agreement with Elad.  The environment minister, to which the INPA is subordinate, was Tzahi Hanegbi at the time.  Since then, Elad has been operating the City of David national park.  Israel Antiquities Authority Chairman Prof. Binyamin Kedar stated in the past that "Elad is an organization with a stated ideological agenda, which presents the history of the City of David in a biased manner."
In a response conveyed by the Israel Antiquities Authority to Rappaport's query, the IAA did not conceal its dissatisfaction: "Although the IAA believes that the City of David national park should be operated by the INPA, it was decided--contrary to the position of the IAA and despite its opposition--that Elad would operate the national park according to a contract with the INPA, with the approval of the Environmental Protection Ministry."
The Environmental Protection Ministry denied responsibility, returning the ball to the INPA: "The Environmental Protection Ministry is not a party to contracts of the type signed by the INPA.  The questions should be put to the INPA."