Rawabi: A Big Ray of Hope in Palestine?

via Dubai Chronicle11-19-09 Updated with input from Rawabi Company:

We have interesting news about residential construction in Palestine, broadcast by JTA - Jewish & Israel News but confirmed in The National, which expands the story with more information about building in Palestine, and also the Dubai Chronicle.

The French version of the tree planting in Rawabi calls out interference from the Israeil military, with comments that the initial planting of 8,000 trees in Palestine’s first “green” city was unauthorized and ordered to stop.

Both French and Jewish press agree that the planting continued, whatever the initial circumstances, bringing to life the earliest stage of a new Palestinian city called Rawabi, Arabic for hills.

I don’t know about you, but I’m stunned to read such a positive story about Palestine.

Today’s news is about date groves, not olive trees, the small export olive oil company project shepharded into existence by Tony Blair. Watching a show about the Zaytoun olive oil company, I said: “Nice, but Palestinians need a lot more economic development than exporting a few bottles of Fair Trade olive oil.”

Could we possibly be seeing one small glimmer of hope here in Palestine?

The project is funded by the government of Qatar and is located about five miles north of Ramallah. The city of Rawabi project is being developed by Bayti Real Estate Company, a joint venture between Qatari Diar and Massar International, and is run by Bashar Masri, Managing Director of the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company, who says: “We have dreamed about a liberal, advanced state with a higher standard of living, and this project is part of those aspirations.”

Even more important than the green design and upscale, luxury vision for Ramallah is the creation of 10,000 jobs in and around the city. A new hospital will support a prestigious health care research facility for 5,000 students and also 6,000 permanent workers.

Rawabi: Palestinians Plan a City

“At the heart of this, it’s about building a nation,” says Bashar Masri, chairman of the board of the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company, 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.” via JTA

The  International Monetary Fund officials say economic growth in the West Bank could reach as much as 7 percent in 2009, if Israel continues to relax restrictions, notably the removal of roadblocks.

Although the economy has yet to recover to pre-intifada levels from the summer of 2000, living standards have improved in a major way everywhere but Gaza in the past three years. Unemployment in the West Bank is 18 percent, down from 25 percent in 2004.

The image of life in Raballah is vastly different than Gaza. In Ramallah, the most prosperous Palestinian city and its financial hub, high-end restaurants are crowded, a new chain of cafes recently opened, billboards advertise top-of-the-line washing machines and cranes building high-rise buildings dot the hilltops. One building under construction will even feature a rotating rooftop restaurant.

On Nov. 10, 2009 the NYTimes reported two significant economic breakthroughs, both overseen by former British prime minister Tony Blair, now an international envoy to the region. The first occasion was a second cellphone company, Qatari-controlled Wataniya investing millions of dollars in the region, and the second was the opening of a new vehicle crossing between Israel and Jenin, the site of a “grinding Israeli offensive in 200”2.

Jenin, also a sign of chaos until recently, is now stable and bustling. It’s hoped that economic development will bring political stability to the region, although many Palestinians express concern that food and jobs not mask their right for freedom.

Mr. Blair said that it was urgent that the political breakdown be fixed, so that a Palestinian state could emerge, and that the economic breakthroughs of the day should serve as a large incentive for both sides to seek progress. He emerged from a meeting with Mr. Abbas saying that a way had to be found to keep the Palestinian leader in his job, because Mr. Abbas remained deeply committed to the two-state solution. via NYTimes

Abbas has said that he’s so dispirited over lack of progress on the peace talks that he will not run for reelection in Jan. 2010.

More artist’s renderings of RawabiIn their report on progress in Palestine, The National reports also on Rawabi, but includes information about the building of middle and low-income apartments, even in Gaza.

The Palestine Investment Fund (PIF), a public investment company formed from the estate of Yasser Arafat, the former president of the Palestinian National Authority, is a major backer of the new housing, but other financiers include Palestinian businessmen and even investors from the Gulf and the US.

The focus on bricks and mortar is important for Palestinian aspirations to nationhood. “We want to see projects on the hilltops other than [Jewish] settlements,” Mohammed Mustafa, the chairman of the PIF, told a ground-breaking ceremony in the West Bank city of Jinan last month, according to Reuters. via The National

Meanwhile, Gaza remains a disaster zone; Arab bloggers write that Blair is a total fake; that America will never truly support a Palestinian state, and the beat goes on.

Political Update

Closing this report, there’s a hotbed of activity in the Middle East with many key players asking Mr. Abbas to stay on. Sarkozy has gone to Saudi Arabia and put forth a proposal for talks in Paris. Egyptian president Hosni Murbarak has discussed an Arab League plan that seeks UN recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

For those readers like the NYT who say that Saudi Arabia and Egypst are now also-rans in the region, Syria is also part of the discussions. Interestingly, members of the Jewish American Congress met with King Abdullah and Queen Rania yesterday in Jordan.

While the European Union says it’s too early for another peace convene, Abbas says Palestine will press on at the UN, with the support of the Arab League. I have a strong sense how this would play out in the US, but I’ll stick with writing about love potions and not making international diplomacy predictions.

No thinking person takes any Israeli-Palestinian negotiation proposal seriously at this point, and yet I will say that the world needs a breakthough. The appalling lack of the international community to get anything done in the Middle East leaves global citizens dismayed and lacking belief in our institutions.

The moderates amongst us are in a state of despair. The question is: how long will the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be allowed to rip a truly fragile world into pieces? The world economy, food famine, global warming, and international women’s issues are all higher priorities than the inability of Israel and Palestine to come to peace with each other.

Returning to the good news, I’m pleased to write about positive developments in Palestine, especially Rawabi, and I’m thrilled that major players in the Middle East have chosen to commit themselves to the economic development of Palestine.

Perhaps the Israeli economic miracle can be duplicated in Palestine, under Arab guidance, of course.

The creation of business and economic institutions doesn’t guarantee any resolution to the political problem, but we are 100% guaranteed of zero progress with out it. Anne

More reading: Blair Hails Economic Steps in West Bank NYTimes