MKs approve new international airport in Nevatim, pending full Knesset vote
Economic Affairs Committee vote in favor of plan, despite objections from security establishment, which cites proximity to military airbase
The Knesset Economic Affairs Committee on Sunday gave its approval, following a first reading in the plenum several weeks ago, to a plan to build another international airport in the south of the country, despite objections from within the security establishment.
According to the plan, which will now return to the plenum for its second and third readings, the airport would be built in the town of Nevatim, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) — less than an hour’s drive — from the Gaza border and adjacent to a military airbase in the Negev desert that is home to F-35I fighter jets.
The airbase was targeted by Iranian missiles last October. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen also claimed to have targeted the airbase last week, when they fired a missile that was intercepted by air defenses before reaching Israeli airspace.
The new airport, some 132 kilometers (some 82 miles) from Tel Aviv, would take seven years to build and handle up to 15 million passengers annually, according to the bill before the Knesset. The bill calls for the airport to be completed within seven years.
The project is intended to help alleviate traffic at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and bolster the economy in the country’s south by creating around 50,000 jobs, particularly for the nearby Bedouin community.
Israel’s military and security establishments have opposed the project due to its proximity to the airbase.
At the start of the meeting, committee chair MK David Bitan said that the Transportation Ministry requested that the Defense Ministry have veto power, and rejected this request, according to a Knesset statement.
Ben Gurion is Israel’s main air gateway with a capacity of 40 million passengers annually. It is nearing its limit, according to the committee, which cited data showing 80 million are expected to pass through the airport by 2050.
In 2019, Israel opened Ramon Airport near the Red Sea resort city of Eilat at the country’s southern tip, on the border with Jordan and Egypt. Prior to the war with Hamas, a number of foreign carriers such as Ryanair operated flights from Europe to Ramon.
At present, the airport is being used largely for domestic flights.
Most international carriers stopped flying to Israel due to the war in Gaza, but many of them have now resumed flights.
The Times of Israel Community.