The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Housing and Construction are at odds of the future of Sde Dov Airport in Tel Aviv. A few months after Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Atias and Minister of Transport Israel Katz announced a plan to vacate the airport, and the Ministry of Defense said that it had no objections, the Ministry of Defense experts are now claiming that the issue has not been settled at all, according to the minutes of a meeting obtained by "Globes".
In February, Atias announced with great fanfare the plan to vacate Sde Dov Airport and use the site for the construction of 12,000 apartments as part of the seafront western section of the Big Bloc. At the time, an IDF spokesman told "Globes" in response, "The defense establishment has no objections to vacating the airport." The IDF is not the only party that has to decide on vacating the airport, as it also used by airlines for domestic flights.
It now appears that that beneath the surface of the audacious official building plans for the area, the Ministry of Defense does not really believe that Sde Dov will be vacated at all. At a meeting last week on claims filed against the Ministry of Defense by landowners in the Big Bloc for allegedly infringing on private land, the Ministry of Defense assessor said, "Sde Dov will never be closed."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 25, 2010
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