The Jerusalem municipality is promoting construction of 2,500 housing units in an area of 280 dunam/70 acres on the eastern slopes of the southern neighborhood of Gilo, near the tunnel-road entrance to the capital. About thirty percent is considered "absentee land", abandoned by Arabs who went to hostile countries during Israel's War of Independence.
Plans will soon be presented to the Planning and Building Commission. Minister Uri Ariel welcomed the initiative but said the bureaucratic process will be long.