In about a month, on June 30, the last airplane will take off from Sde Dov airport in north Tel Aviv, serving mostly flights to and from Eilat in the south of Israel. Nearly 81 years after it was established by the British, in September 1938, Sde Dov will take another significant step toward turning into one of the most exclusive residential and leisure complexes in Israel, on the Tel Aviv beach. The planned development, which was approved in February by the committee for preserving the coastal environment, and was submitted to public disagreement in April, sprawls over 2,500 dunam (618 acres), and would include 16,000 housing units, 6,900 of which would be affordable housing, and 514,000 square meters (127 acres) of public buildings, 126,000 square meters (31 acres) of commercial buildings, 323,000 square meters (80 acres) of industry, 200,000 square meters (49 acres) of hotels and 385 dunam (95 acres) of parks and public gardens. 

Sde Dov is the last open space left in Tel Aviv. As long as it has been used as an airport, the city could not expand northward. For a city struggling with a serious housing shortage and high real estate prices, it would seem that the plan should have been applauded, but in reality there are some who see it as a terrible idea and a threat, including the mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, who believes that closing the airport is a “miserable decision.” He has been trying to promote an alternative plan that includes leaving the airport in operation and reducing construction at the site.   

“This airport is used by the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. Its closing would severely harm the mobility of area residents," one of the leaders of the opposition to the project, social activist Roy Mimran, told Al-Monitor. He runs a Facebook group called "Preserve Sde Dov.” He said, “New construction would make the city denser, when it already suffers from a population explosion and would create transportation chaos. In addition, the giant towers would destroy the skyline of many city residents, would harm the air quality in neighborhoods and would harm the health of area residents. It’s not too late to cancel the venture.”    

The opposition to closing Sde Dov airport is relatively new. As early as 1961 the Tel Aviv municipality demanded the airport to be closed, with the support of residents who saw it as a nuisance. Later, the date of its closure was set for Sept. 1, 1967. At the same time, the state started selling some of its land to private developers who sought to build on it once the airport shut down. But as the years passed, the date of its closure was postponed again and again and the number of flights arriving and departing increased. In the first 11 months of 2018, for instance, there was an increase of 5% in the number of travelers using Sde Dov to fly to Eilat and back — more than 720,000 passengers.