Faced with these facts imposed by force, observers believe that the battle over the airport land will remain an open struggle between two narratives. The Israeli narrative seeks to use bulldozers and ideological museums to entrench annexation and erase the past, while the Palestinian narrative clings to the sovereign and historical identity of "Jerusalem International Airport" as a witness to Palestine's connection with the world, and a fundamental pillar that cannot be relinquished in any future horizon of freedom and independence.

At the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, land has never been merely a fixed geographical space. Since 1948, it has turned into a continuous theater for imposing systematic facts on the ground, with borders being redrawn and infrastructure directed to serve replacement settlement projects.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's laying of the cornerstone for the so-called "Jewish Heritage Center" in the area of Kalandia International Airport (Jerusalem International Airport) reveals a new and dangerous chapter in the control over the stone and historical space of the holy city. The plan, engineered in the corridors of Israeli planning and construction committees, has not been interpreted by analysts as a transient housing crisis for settlers or as a municipal development project, but as an integrated strategic program intersecting political, personal, demographic, and environmental dimensions. How could it be otherwise, when the project is precisely designed to impose an irreversible geopolitical reality, reshape the historical narrative of the place, entrench the isolation of East Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings, and definitively eliminate the material foundations of the "Two-State Solution" by transforming Palestinian aviation gateways into residential neighborhoods and exclusive ideological centers for settlers.

Jerusalem International Airport, established in 1920 during the British Mandate period, represents a highly symbolic and sovereign value in the Palestinian political and social consciousness. It witnessed a real renaissance and extensive development during the Jordanian era, serving as a vital artery connecting Jerusalem with Arab and world capitals, receiving diplomatic delegations, tourist flights, and notable figures. However, after the 1967 war and the Israeli authorities' imposition of control over it, it was converted to military uses and limited domestic commercial flights, until it was completely closed with the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada in 2000.

Ideological Goals

The massive Israeli project in the airport area not only carries ideological and urban goals but also rests on political momentum and a personal and familial dimension for Prime Minister Netanyahu, by immortalizing the memory of his brother Yonatan, who was killed in 1976 while leading the Israeli commando unit Sayeret Matkal in Operation Entebbe in Uganda. Laying the cornerstone for the "Heritage Center" in the historic airport building is not just a commemorative step; it is a clear attempt to "Israelize" the place and transform the airport's symbolism from a historic Palestinian and Arab civil facility into a stronghold for the Israeli military and security narrative. This center will be used as a propaganda tool to reshape the historical narrative for visitors and settlers and justify land confiscation under the guise of national heritage, especially since the plan includes establishing a museum or specialized center promoting Israeli aviation history within the remaining architectural structures of Kalandia Airport.

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The project will also erase the visual and historical trace of the former Palestinian and Jordanian civil aviation, in order to implant a new technological and military narrative that depicts the site as an integral part of the development path of the Hebrew state, giving new settlers a necessary sense of historical connection to the place. This prompted the Israeli government, alongside the museum and the 'Heritage Center,' to approve the construction plan for a giant residential suburb comprising about 9,000 settlement units to accommodate approximately 50,000 Israeli settlers, focusing on the ultra-Orthodox Jewish (Haredi) sector, which faces a severe housing crisis inside Jerusalem. The project, known as 'Atarot,' will provide them with a large, government-supported urban space and ensure a rapid demographic flow that will change the demographic balance of the area within a few years.

According to settlement affairs expert Khalil Tafakji, 'The new settlement, which will be named after Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, is the largest since Jabal Abu Ghneim (Har Homa) established in 1997,' stressing that this project has strategic goals aimed at destroying a symbol of Palestinian sovereignty.

Laws and Mechanisms

To pass the 'Atarot' project, Israeli authorities rely on an arsenal of laws and regulatory mechanisms designed to circumvent Palestinian land ownership and rights. They did not present the project as a new public land confiscation process but relied on classifying the airport land as 'state land,' especially since this classification is based on old documents and confiscations from the British Mandate and Jordanian administration periods, and that the land, with a total area of about 1.2 million square meters, was designated for public benefit. However, this concept has been exclusively redirected for Jewish settlement construction, which, according to observers, constitutes a fundamental violation of international humanitarian law that prohibits an occupying power from changing the nature of use of public property in occupied territories for the benefit of its own citizens.

Because the total area of the plan contains pockets and large plots of land belonging to private Palestinian owners from the towns of Kalandia, Beit Hanina, and Kafr Aqab north of Jerusalem, Israeli planning committees resort to a regulatory tool known as 'reunification and sorting' to avoid lengthy legal appeals in court that could delay the project. Through this, all lands (private and public) are merged into one planning basin, then building shares and rights are redistributed. This results in squeezing private Palestinian properties into marginal corners, stripping them of independent construction capabilities, and converting vital areas into streets, public facilities, and parks serving the new settlement, meaning a de facto confiscation wrapped in legality.

A Settlement Wedge