Rawabi

Rawabi
روابي
City
Arabic transcription(s)
 • Arabicروابي
Hebrew transcription(s)
 • Hebrewרוואבי
Kyoto Tower viewed from Kiyomizu-dera Temple
Tō-ji
Clockwise from top:
Palestinian flags flying by the Rawabi visitor center, Rawabi in June 2013, Construction view of the industrial area and some Rawabi neighbourhoods from Ateret, Construction site of Rawabi in 2009
Official logo of Rawabi
Rawabi Logo
Rawabi is located in State of Palestine
Rawabi
Rawabi
Location of Rawabi within Palestine
Coordinates: 32°0′36″N 35°11′6″E / 32.01000°N 35.18500°E / 32.01000; 35.18500
Palestine grid173/164
StateState of Palestine
GovernorateRamallah and al-Bireh
Government
 • TypeCity (from 2010)
 • Head of MunicipalityIbrahim Natour
Area
 • Total6,300 dunams (6.3 km2 or 2.4 sq mi)
Population
 (2017)[1]
 • Total710
 • Density110/km2 (290/sq mi)
Websitewww.rawabi.ps

Rawabi (Arabic: روابي, meaning "The Hills") is the first planned city built for and by Palestinians[2][3][4] in the West Bank, and is hailed as a "flagship Palestinian enterprise."[5][6][7] Rawabi is located near Birzeit and Ramallah. The master plan envisages a high tech city with 6,000 housing units, housing a population of between 25,000 and 40,000 people,[5][8] spread across six neighborhoods.[2][9]

Construction began in January 2010.[10] By 2014, 650 family apartments housing an estimated 3,000 people[11] had been completed and sold, but could not be occupied[5] while negotiations over supplying the city with water stalled.[8] The city remained without water; the delay was attributed to the Israeli–Palestinian Joint Water Committee, with Israelis blaming Palestinians for the delay and Palestinians blaming Israelis.[12] On 1 March 2015, its developer, Bashar al-Masri, announced that Israel would finally connect the city up to the Israeli-controlled water grid.[13]

In Israel Rawabi is called "The Palestinian Modi'in."[14] The project was criticized by certain Palestinian movements, such as the Palestinian National BDS Committee,[15] and some Israeli settler groups, the former claiming the use of Israeli materials normalizes the occupation, the latter asserting the project invades Israel and could become a terrorist base.[16][17] Buyers started moving into apartments in August 2015.[18] By May 2017, despite difficulties with flying Israeli checkpoints controlling the road to the city, Masri claimed that 3,000 Palestinians had taken up residence there, though the Palestinian census for the same year only listed 710 residents.[1][19] As of 2024, about 5,000 units had been sold.[20]

  1. ^ a b Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017 (PDF). Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) (Report). State of Palestine. February 2018. pp. 64–82. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  2. ^ a b Harriet Sherwood, 'Rawabi rises: new West Bank city symbolises Palestine's potential,' The Guardian 8 August 2013.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Shavit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference McCarthy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Kershner was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference theage was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference brisbanenews was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b Avi Issacharoff 'Waterless, the first planned Palestinian city sits empty,' The Times of Israel 20 February 2015
  9. ^ Building the Palestinian Dream, Haaretz
  10. ^ Rawabi: Work Begins On First Planned Palestinian City. HuffPost, 12 January 2010
  11. ^ Jack Moore, 'Palestine's Billion-Dollar City Can Finally Open,' Newsweek 27 February 2015.
  12. ^ Shlomo Eldar, 'Israel still refuses to run water to Rawabi,' Al-Monitor 18 February 2015.
  13. ^ AP,Nahum Barnea and Danny Rubinstein,'Palestinian city plan to move forward after Israel agrees to water deal,' Ynet 1 March 2015
  14. ^ "Rawabi founder: "If we were able to build a city, we will build a state"". Globes. 28 June 2015.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Miller was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Smadar Peri, 'Battle for water won by entrepeneur [sic] of first Palestinian planned city,' Ynet 4 March 2015
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference DoucetMcMullen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ 'New Palestinian city welcomes first 'Rawabians' Ynet 1 September 2015
  19. ^ William Booth 'The $1.4 billion bet on a new Palestinian future,' The Washington Post 25 May 2017
  20. ^ Treleaven, Sarah; Levin, Jamie (8 April 2024). "The Impossible Promise of Building a New Palestinian City". The Walrus. Retrieved 10 September 2024.