New Palestinian metropolis offers economic route around occupation

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shed no tears when he heard Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announce that he was ending relations with President Donald Trump. The peace that could threaten his seat is as unlikely as ever. At worst, a few European countries will recognize a Palestinian state. But even if all of Europe, Asia and Africa recognized Palestine, not a single Israeli outpost in the occupied West Bank would be dismantled. The power of the US veto at the UN Security Council will save us, Netanyahu believes. Trump’s ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said in an interview last week that the Palestinian decision to oust the United States from the Israeli-Palestinian peace process proves that they don’t even want peace. In a worst-case scenario, the Palestinian Authority would suspend its security cooperation with Israel, resulting in a third intifada. But why would the Palestinians believe that another violent uprising would succeed when the two previous ones failed?

In light of the receding diplomatic option for Israeli-Palestinian peace and the uselessness of a military option, more and more Palestinians are concluding that they are doomed to live forever under occupation. But the newly built Palestinian West Bank town of Rawabi on the outskirts of Ramallah presents them with a third option: a Palestinian declaration of economic independence. Palestinian-American businessman Bashar Masri, who created this ambitious project flourishing in the center of the West Bank, has proven that such an idea is feasible.

Despite the heaps of obstacles Israeli authorities piled in his way, Masri has built a model town with a commercial center offering top-of-the-line brands, office spaces equipped with the kind of amenities that could attract high-tech companies, a 12,000-seat amphitheater, a covered amusement park and movie theaters. The environmentally friendly and verdant city offers attractive apartments at reasonable prices and provides thousands of jobs and shopping and leisure opportunities for area residents.

Masri told The Guardian's correspondent Harriet Sherwood, who visited his city in May 2016, that Rawabi "sends a message to the international community" that the Palestinians are not “what they are led to believe, a bunch of terrorists. We are ready to build our state. Here is the proof.” Five years earlier, in September 2011, the donor states forum announced that the PA was ready to establish a state. It based its conclusion on reports by the UN, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international financial institutions. The chair of the group, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Store, described Palestinian attempts to set up robust state institutions and to revive their economy as “outstanding international success stories.”