Knesset Economic Committee Greenlights Nevatim International Airport

The Knesset Economic Committee, led by MK David Bitan, today approved for second and third readings two bill proposals, one by MK Ram Ben Barak and the other by MK Almog Cohen, according to which the next international airport to be established will be in Nevatim, near the military airfield. A similar proposal by MK Naama Lazimi was also merged into the bills today. According to the approved proposal, the construction of the airport in Nevatim will be completed within seven years, with the National Planning and Building Council submitting a detailed plan for the airport for government approval within a year and four months of the law's publication.

It was also determined that near the completion of the airport's construction, the Minister of Transportation and Road Safety will designate the airport area as an airport by decree and that it will serve for international and domestic flights. The Minister is also authorized to enact regulations on any matter related to the implementation of the law, with the approval of the Economic Committee.

At the start of today's meeting, Chairman Bitan said that the Ministry of Transportation wanted to give a veto right to the Ministry of Defense, which is unacceptable to the committee. He added that there is a Knesset declaration that the airport will be in Nevatim, and this is possible within the set deadlines. According to him, when the military wanted to move bases from the central region and received a budget, it did so.

Ronit Mazar, a representative of the Planning Administration, noted that the plan has been promoted since 2017, and there is currently a fear that the National Council will not meet the schedules and will be in violation of the law because there are things that do not depend on it. 'There are other players here, an environmental impact assessment is needed and to prepare a review, data must be received from the Ministry of Defense. To date, the Ministry of Defense has not transferred data, so Israel Roads cannot complete the review and it is impossible to hold a discussion in the National Council,' she said.

A representative of the Ministry of Transportation, Ofer Eliyashar, said that seven years is too short a time and added: 'We need the help of the Ministry of Defense and the Air Force and we will not be able to do this without it.'

Elad Pinchas, a representative of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, noted that the review guidelines were given back in 2017, after which and given that the plan did not progress, additional guidelines were issued in December 2024 and again last weekend. 'Whoever wanted could have already performed, and the National Council is sovereign to decide that it does not accept the recommendations of the ministry,' he said. In response to this, MK Ben Barak said that the Ministry of Environmental Protection's review determined that it is impossible to establish a field in the Jezreel Valley and from there they are still promoting it, so it is unclear why they are hanging on a survey for Nevatim.

A representative of the Ministry of Justice, Adv. Tom Fisher, noted that the bill interferes with discretion by determining that the field will be established in a certain area. Chairman Bitan responded, asking where the Ministry of Justice was in the eight years that have passed since 2017, during which time they could have made any decision they wanted. 'They dragged their feet because of the IDF and the Ministry of Defense, so we are interfering,' he said.

The director of the Transportation Department in the Planning Administration, Ilana Shapira, said that the forecast for 2050 is for 80 million passengers a year, and one more field will not be able to supply that, so it is not right to increase additional planning. A representative of the Treasury's Budget Department, Sapir Efragen, said they are working on two fields in parallel, as Nevatim will be able to supply 12 million passengers a year and will not meet all needs and need both airports. Therefore, it is unclear why to delay the preparation of a plan in Yodean.

An IDF representative, Yaakov Lanin, said that 'from a security perspective, there is a plan for Ramat David and there is no plan for establishment in Nevatim. We will not be able to present the security considerations here, we will present our position in the cabinet.' Ben Barak responded and said that in the Foreign and Security Committee, two discussions were held in which all the security considerations were presented and they were not accepted.

Towards the end of the discussion, the committee added a clause to the proposal that will require a report to the committee on progress, once every six months, for the first three years. Chairman Bitan called on the civil servants not to stop the bill in the Ministers' Committee for Legislation and noted that it would not help to prevent it from being voted on in the plenum. 'We want the planning and execution processes to end as soon as possible. Seven years is a long time,' he concluded.

At the end of the discussion, the proposal was approved by the votes of Chairman Bitan, MK Shalom Danino, MK Keti Shitrit, MK Alon Shuster, MK Mati Tzarfati Harcavi, MK Shelly Tal Miron, and MK Ram Ben Barak.