The National Board for Planning and Building, headed by Ministry of the Interior director general Dr Shuki Amrani yesterday approved the plans for what would be the first designated Arab city to be built since Israel’s independence in 1948. It is scheduled to be situated at Givat Tantur, east of the coastal city of Acre.

The plan for the city, which is scheduled to house 40,000 people was jointly initiated by the Ministry of Housing and Construction and Israel Land Authority and was initially approved by the Cabinet six years ago. Following yesterday’s approval, the plan will now be referred to district councils for their comments before being passed back to the National Board for Planning and Building and then to the Cabinet for final approval.

The new city is thought in particular to target middle-class Arab Israelis. However, the new city will not comprise solely high-rise housing and will also include business and leisure infrastructure. The Ministry of Interior said yesterday, “The proposed plan offers a variety of population densities facilitating community and private development in the high-density construction typical of modern cities, and the creation of an urban centre for services, leisure, and commerce for the surrounding rural area.”

According to Haaretz, the city planning team met with Arab mayors, planners and academics while drawing up designs. A report by the planners said that the city is “a message to the Arab population that new communities are not only being built for Jews but for Arabs as well, as part of the process of affirmative action for the Arab population in the public sphere.”

Approximately 1.8 million Israeli citizens are Arab, comprising around 24 per cent of the total population. Many are concentrated in the Galilee region of northern Israel.