The Israeli authorities plan to build 10,000 housing units at the Qalandia airport, called ‘Atarot’ by the Israelis and closed two decades ago.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted the denounce of expert Suhail Khaliliya that the project includes houses, shops and an industrial area as part of the strategy to turn the settlement into a city capable of housing more than 40 thousand people in a near future.

The construction is part of Tel Aviv’s strategy to separate Jerusalem from the rest of the Palestinian West Bank, he stressed.

Isarel’s goal is to draw the borders of ‘Greater Jerusalem,’ which includes the large colony blocks of Gush Etzion, Ma’ale Adumim and Givat Ze’ev, he said.

The coordinator of the popular campaign to denounce the separation wall, Jamal Juma, spoke in a similar vein.

The new colony will be built in the area that closes the circle of Jewish settlements around Jerusalem, and separates that city from the rest of the Western Bank, and will be built between densely populated Palestinian neighborhoods, he said.

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