Israel needs an additional international airport as soon as possible. While the building of such an international airport at Megiddo near Haifa has been greeted with major opposition by local residents, who fear the damage to the environment, the Negev has been begging for a project of this size since Israel decided to set up a second international airport.
Deciding on the location of the country's second international airport is a most dramatically important decision, and the choice between Megiddo and Nebatim in the Negev is close at hand.
Let me reveal a personal interest in the matter. Both the Negev and the Galilee are my children. The development of the Negev and the development of the Galilee are equally dear to me. When I assumed the responsibility of Minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, I set myself a target: to bring 300,000 residents to the Negev and 300,000 residents to the Galilee. Many eyebrows were raised when they heard those numbers, but I stick by these numbers today more than ever. Without a vision, nothing ever gets done and there is no doubt that building a second international airport will help realize the vision.
The question that we need to ask today is if we are taking a decision that will ring the changes and develop the entire southern region, or will depress another region and bring ecological and social hardship. There is no doubt that Israel needs an additional international airport as soon as possible. The number of international travelers is expected to surpass 12 million a year, compared with the current 10.5 million, and it would be better to plan ahead of time.
We already know the environmental impact of an international airport. 1,500,000 people living near Ben Gurion Airport can already tell the residents of the Jezre'el Valley and Afula how it feels.
The heads of the local authorities and the residents of the north are opposed to the construction of an airport at Megiddo, while in the Negev everybody wants an airport at Nebatim. Night flights will be allowed at Nebatim but not at Megiddo. An airport at Megiddo is liable to security problems because it is so close to the Green Line, while Nebatim is not subject to such problems.
There are already infrastructures at Nebatim, which are state-of-the-art in the aviation sector, while there are none at Megiddo. At Nebatim, the longest airstrip in the Middle East allows all types of aircraft to land and take off, and there are logistical facilities of the highest international standards. These advantages that are entailed by building the international airport at Nebatim, will upgrade Israel's airports infrastructure without damaging the environment and the lives of residents.
The airport in the Negev is already there. It must now be adapted and transformed into an international airport with a terminal that will provide hundreds of thousands of new jobs, will develop the regional economy and expose hundreds of thousands tourists to the splendors of the south (the forecast for the number of tourists visiting the Dead Sea in 2011 is 1.5 million).
The Nebatim International airport would bring about enormous change. The project would encourage the settlement of the Negev, strengthen the existing towns and villages and help achieve the target of 300,000 new residents in the region over the next decade.
The importance of the development of a second international airport has been recognized. The significance of building the airport in the Negev is known, the relevance of the location is understood, so that now everybody must pull together to make this national project a reality.
Silvan Shalom is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 8, 2010
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