Modern architecture meets tradition in Palestine's first planned city
The Palestinian city of Rawabi, which combines modernity with Palestinian heritage, hopes to attract tourists from around the world.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — A large Palestinian flag flies over Rawabi, the city in the West Bank that symbolizes Palestinian dreams of a haven that combines high living standards with the latest architectural design. Between Jerusalem and Nablus, to the north of Ramallah in the West Bank, the model city stretches over approximately 6.3 square kilometers (2.4 square miles).
“The city is following the standards of urban planning as well as the latest architecture and modern construction standards,” Majid Abdul Fattah, the head of the Rawabi municipality, told Al-Monitor, “With the joint efforts of the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company and the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, the drilling and construction operations have been ongoing since 2010 with the aim of achieving a series of residential neighborhoods.”
But it has not always been easy for the city, whose construction workers were attacked with stones by the residents of the nearby Israeli settlement of Ateret, which lies on a hill close to Rawabi. They wanted to hinder the establishment of the Palestinian city thinking that its economic prosperity would prompt the Palestinians to hold onto this land. They also thought that the city would be a source of pollution and lead to traffic in the future. The relationship between the two settlements is illustrated in a statue of Nabil Anani, one of the founders of the Palestinian contemporary art movement. The statue shows a Palestinian family in their traditional clothes clasping their hands around a Palestinian flag and standing with their backs to Ateret and their faces to the city of Rawabi, which they believe is their future.
“The city consists of 23 residential neighborhoods comprising of more than 5,000 housing units. It will be inhabited by more than 40,000 people once the construction phases are completed and will thus become the largest Palestinian investment project to provide apartments at affordable prices for all segments of Palestinian society. It also provides job opportunities for hundreds of people who have found in this city an opportunity to achieve their hopes and aspirations,” Fattah said.
