Al-Krunz said that the airport would be built in the Al-Bqai’a
area between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem. He added that 70
percent of the land marked for the airport project belongs to the Jerusalem
area and the remainder to the Bethlehem area. The project is estimated to cost
$340 million.
The minister added that the project would have a control
tower, a terminal with six air bridges and a large parking lot. He said the
airport would have a 3.2-km runway that would be good enough for large aircraft
to land and take off.
Al-Krunz said the airport project had received the go-ahead
from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and that the PA was
seeking international funding.
He said the PA would not seek the approval of the Israeli
government for the project since the construction of an airport in the West
Bank was included in the Oslo Accords.
The minister said the PA would also build a port in the Gaza
Strip. The port will be built on the shores of Sheikh Ijleen in the southern
Gaza Strip. Al-Krunz said that France and the Netherlands had agreed to finance
the project.
Tens of donor countries pledged more than $4.4 billion to
rebuild the war-torn territory in a conference held in Sharm El-Sheikh in March
2009. But nothing happened on the ground until now because of intra-Palestinian
strife as well as the Israeli siege of the coastal strip.
The PA and Hamas have differences of opinion over who should
have control over the donations meant for rebuilding the territory devastated
by an Israeli offensive in early 2009. Control over reconstruction funds would
put huge sums of aid money in the hands of Hamas and could also give the group
a measure of international recognition.
The PA is urging all parties to consider it the sole channel
for administering the construction process. The Gaza-based Hamas government
says it is the legitimate channel “to any Arab or foreign body that wants to
rebuild what has been destroyed by the Israeli occupation.”
The Palestinian Ministry of National Economy said in
September that the PA had lost up to $1.9 billion in lost revenue due to the
siege of the Gaza Strip.
Israel imposed the siege on the territory in June 2006 after
Hamas captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross border raid near the
coastal enclave. Israel tightened the siege in June 2007, when Hamas routed
security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and ousted his Fatah
movement from the enclave.
Israel eased the siege to defuse international criticism
after its soldiers killed nine Turks in Mavi Marmara sailing to run the
blockade in May 2010. Israel still restricts shipments of construction
materials through its land crossings with Gaza.
