海角大神

Palestinian developer builds city of dreams, but will they come?

Hailed as a building block of a future state, a brand new West Bank city is struggling to persuade Palestinians to move out of their traditional communities.

Focus

Before Manar Imad and her family moved into a new three-bedroom apartment here, a relative balked.聽鈥淢y brother-in-law said, 鈥榊ou are going to a ghost town. It has no shops. It鈥檚 empty,鈥� 鈥欌�� laughs Ms. Imad.聽

鈥淚t鈥檚 true that when we moved in it was empty, but now it鈥檚 a growing city. Day after day it is filling up with people and shops. It鈥檚 a great city,鈥� she says.聽

The reality lies somewhere in between.

Rawabi, a $1.2 billion mega housing project five miles north of Ramallah, is the聽first-ever Palestinian planned city and was originally feted as a聽building block for a future state. But Israeli red tape delayed approval for roads and access to water, and it took six years from breaking ground for the city to welcome the first intake of residents, including Imad and her family.聽

Now comes a moment of truth for the Palestinian city of dreams: how to lure聽businesses and tens of thousands of middle-class residents聽to make the move, transforming the hilltop聽project from a construction site into a breathing city.聽

Rawabi's promise is a modern community with聽its own cultural institutions, shops, and jobs. But聽it聽requires聽that socially conservative Palestinians leave their traditional West Bank neighborhoods of extended families and move into a new city that mixes people from varying clans and cities of origin.

The test comes at a time when the prospects for Palestinian statehood seem to have receded completely, and violence has caused an economic slowdown.

In the half year since Rawabi opened to residents, home sales have been slow; several businesses that were planning to open up have gotten cold feet. The project has even stopped advertising.聽

Today, the stone-paved streets of Rawabi鈥檚 first neighborhood are lined with small shrubs, street lamps, and even public exercise machines. But after dark, light emanates only from聽the windows of聽lone聽apartments聽amid a canyon-like row of darkened residential buildings.

At a聽Roman-style amphitheatre the seating has been completed,聽but construction is incomplete on school buildings, a medical clinic, and the town鈥檚 commercial center.

Bashar Masri, the Palestinian business mogul behind Rawabi, says the initial 鈥渆uphoria鈥� for the project was lost during years of construction delays. In the last few months the economic climate has become even more challenging,聽he says,聽because a wave of violence with Israel has made buyers and businesses more risk averse.

鈥淧eople are not as excited. It鈥檚 difficult for people to be happy when they are surrounded by sadness,鈥� he says. 鈥淐oming to buy a house is a huge endeavor. It鈥檚 a risk to change your life, and people don鈥檛 like to do it unless they are totally comfortable. And they aren鈥檛 comfortable at all.鈥�

Earlier this month, the Israeli military imposed a one-day closure around Ramallah in response to an attack, highlighting聽the inconvenient location of a security checkpoint on the road from Ramallah, the hub of economic life in the West Bank, to Rawabi's hilltop location.

A national project

Rawabi bills itself as a national project. A聽聽waxes patriotic about Palestinian flags that fly above the buildings 鈥渋n stark contrast to a predominant attitude of acquiescence, a sense of powerlessness, and a fear that we have not managed to accomplish anything of significance.鈥�

The city embodies the state-building philosophy championed by former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who argued that Palestinians could still build an effective government and economy under Israel鈥檚 military occupation. The argument is that economic development can be a form of resistance to Israel and boosts international support for statehood.聽

Even though peace negotiations are nowhere in sight, Mr. Masri insists: 鈥淎 Palestinian state is in the making. It鈥檚 not whether we will have a state or not, it鈥檚 when we will have a state.鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to wait for the day that the right parameters are in the right place to sign an [peace] agreement. We the people will continue to build and make our lives better, and our economy better.鈥�

But critics say the project plays into an alleged Israeli strategy to quench Palestinian aspirations with economic development rather than full statehood.聽

Rawabi 鈥渋s part of the Israeli strategy of economic peace,鈥� says Tariq Dana, a policy adviser at Al Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank.聽鈥淯ltimately, Israel remains in control over the territory.鈥欌��

Financed with hundreds of millions of dollars from a Qatari government investment fund and Masri鈥檚 conglomerate, Masaar International, builders have so far completed work on 1,300 of 5,000 homes slated for the project.

Half the completed units have been sold, though that鈥檚聽聽as聽had been聽reported two years ago. So far,聽according to project officials, 200 families have moved in. Residents and聽officials predict that the planned opening of a local school in September will spur more arrivals.

鈥淐ome back during the summer, and you鈥檒l see how prosperous Rawabi is,鈥� promises Imad, whose husband works in Ramallah as an engineer for Rawabi. The mother of one聽says聽she聽feels聽more secure in her new neighborhood聽than she did in聽her husband鈥檚 hometown of Jenin in the northern West Bank, where she worried about street violence and raids by Israel.

A few buildings down, Motaz Al Nimer, 29, a manager at the yet-to-be-opened supermarket, says聽he was attracted by Rawabi鈥檚 promise of a modern style of living, mixing Palestinians from different towns.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a new environment,鈥� he says.聽鈥淵ou have a lot of people who come from different kinds of cities.聽They come from different backgrounds. I鈥檓 from Nablus, my neighbor is from Hebron. I鈥檓 with the open-minded people here. It鈥檚 a younger generation.鈥�

Competing with 鈥榦ld country鈥�

One Palestinian real estate adviser聽says聽the distance from Ramallah and the threat of being caught at Israeli checkpoints are deterring potential buyers. 鈥淚 hear from people that [sales] are not going well,鈥澛爏ays聽Hamza Akel.

He also believes that聽Palestinians in the West Bank are too rooted to move to a planned community like Rawabi.聽鈥淲e like to live in the old country. All the cities here have their own culture.聽鈥淧eople 鈥� like what they live in鈥�. You can鈥檛 bring them to another social life聽that聽will never be.鈥�

Undaunted by detractors and slack sales, Masri predicts that Rawabi will be more sophisticated by mixing Palestinians of different backgrounds.

鈥淚 grew up in Nablus, my parents grew up in Nablus, and my grandparents grew up in Nablus. And in the same darn neighborhood. Now we are moving out of this.聽Wherever you have聽a melting pot, usually you have a better community,鈥� he says.聽

The building project has created as聽many聽as 10,000 jobs, and developers hope the city鈥檚 businesses will eventually employ 5,000 people. It鈥檚 already spurred a smaller housing project closer to Ramallah, and local businessmen say聽the聽sheer size of Rawabi will force Palestinian service providers and mortgage lenders to scale up their聽operations.

鈥淚t聽introduces聽other sectors to the聽opportunity聽of聽supplying large-scale projects,鈥澛爏ays聽Sam Bahour, a businessman who was the project manager for Ramallah鈥檚 first shopping mall. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a disruptive element in the positive sense: that is a value that can鈥檛 be underestimated as more Rawabis emerge.鈥欌��

Masri says the real success of the project will be measured not in sales but whether it inspires a second and third Rawabi.

鈥淭he lesson is that large聽projects are doable with Palestinian determination and that the occupation is an obstacle, but should not be a deterrent,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a proof to ourselves that we can build and construct. Destruction is easy, but building and construction is hard.鈥�