Israel’s Cabinet yesterday backed plans to invest millions of shekels in a five-year project to develop the Western Wall plaza, in a project branded by the Palestinians as “illegal.”

The plans to improve access to both the Wall and to nearby archaeological sites were outlined in a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, which said it would invest 85 million shekels €17 million in the project.

But the announcement drew an angry response from the office of Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, which said Israel had no right to make changes on the ground in occupied east Jerusalem.

Construction work in the Old City, particularly around the Western Wall which backs onto the Al-Aqsa mosque compound housing Islam’s third holiest site, is one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has a history of triggering unrest.

“The aim of the plan is to improve access for millions of visitors to the site and also to the archaeological sites, and to upgrade the infrastructure and the transport infrastructure in the area,” the Israeli statement said.

“The goal of the plan is to preserve, and improve accessibility to, archaeological findings,” it said, mentioning improved access for private cars, public transport and emergency vehicles, as well as improving disabled access.

The 2011-2015 plan follows on from a project first approved in 2004, the results of which led to “huge growth” in the number of annual visitors to the Western Wall, rising from two million to eight million in 2009, the statement said.

It was not immediately clear how the development project would change the appearance of the vast Western Wall plaza, which covers some 20,000 square metres.

“The Western Wall is the most important heritage site for the people of Israel, and we are committed to developing and preserve it so it will continue to be the focal point and a source of inspiration for millions of visitors and tourists, both old and young, from Israel and abroad,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying in the statement.

But Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, slammed the project as “illegal,” accusing Israel of trying to create facts on the ground in the city’s eastern sector, which the Palestinians want as capital of their future state.