TEL AVIV, February 28, 2007, (WAFA)-Israeli government bodies have been promoting a preliminary plan over the past few weeks to build a neighborhood of 11,000 units for the ultra-Orthodox near the East Jerusalem airport, Haaretz reported Wednesday.

The plan also calls for the construction of a tunnel under a Palestinian neighborhood to connect the new quarter to one of the colonies in the Beit El area east of Ramallah.

MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) said Tuesday that the Housing Ministry is the body that developed a plan to erect a massive new ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in East Jerusalem, according to the daily.

The new neighborhood is to be built close to the separation fence near the Qalandiyah road block, which separates the Palestinian neighborhoods of north Jerusalem from Ramallah. If approved, it would be the largest building project over the Green Line in Jerusalem since the 1967 Six-Day War. The neighborhood, which will apparently be built would sit in the heart of one of the most crowded urban Palestinian areas in the West Bank, the daily added.

The plan proposes connecting the new neighborhood to the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Kokhav Yaakov east of Ramallah, which is at present outside the planned route of the separation fence. To this end, a tunnel a few hundred meters long would be dug beneath the Palestinian village of Aqab and under the separation fence, Haaretz reported.

M.H.(12:55 P)(10:55 GMT)