Hope raised by plans for new West Bank city

[Mosby]

RAWABI, West Bank - Dusk has fallen on a terraced hillside, and workers clearing the red earth hurry to finish planting trees in the twilight, their labor the initial step in the construction of the first-ever planned Palestinian city.

The city, with a construction price tag of some $350 million, already has its city limits registered, a name - Rawabi, Arabic for "hills" - and funding from the government of Qatar. It's located about five miles north of Ramallah.

The project's Ramallah-based developers, who plan to start building soon, hail the project as a prized and much-needed example of Palestinian economic development. Israeli officials are among those citing it as a symbol of Palestinian progress.

"At the heart of this, it's about building a nation," says Bashar Masri, chairman of the board of the Bayti Real Estate Investment Co., which is running the project. "We have dreamed about a liberal, advanced state with a higher standard of living, and this project is part of those aspirations."

http://www.jewishaz.com/issues/story.mv?091127+hope

[LeftishBrit]

1. Here's to its success!

[Scurrilous]

2. Settlers: New Palestinian city will harm security, the environment

<snip>

"Right-wing activists have begun organizing a campaign against the new Palestinian city of Rawabi, which recently began taking shape in the West Bank. The activists claim the new city will cause traffic jams, pollution, security issues and will only benefit Palestinian elites.

Rawabi's construction began some two months ago north of Bir Zeit, about 10 kilometers from Ramallah. The new city is supposed to have 5,000 housing units for some 25,000 people. Most of the designated city falls in Area A, under civil and military Palestinian Authority control.

The new apartments are expected to sell for between $38,000 to $75,000 per unit, and the city is also planned to have industrial and commercial zones, with municipal infrastructure using "green" technologies.

The overall cost of the project, being built by the Qatari-based firm Bayti, is estimated at $200 million, raised from private donations and aid from Gulf states."

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