An artist’s rendering of Rawabi
The Palestinian Authority, in coordination with the American government, is building a new settlement in the West Bank. This one is intended to provide 40,000 “Palestinians with homes in an American-style development.” The Huffington Post carries the whole story.
When I first heard about the Rawabi plan I was repulsed. It took some time for me to distill exactly what made me so uncomfortable. It wasn’t the Pavlovian conditioning; direct exposure to the Jewish settler colonies in the West Bank and Gaza has created a psychological association between objectively neutral architectural features – red-tiled roofs, trimmed hedges, cul-de-sacs – and racism and apartheid for me. It wasn’t that though; Rawabi seemed more profoundly wrong.
Rawabi is a painful outgrowth of the continued obliteration of Palestine. Here is something so clearly alien, something so obviously conceived in an alien mind, masquerading as Palestinian. Some State Department bureaucrat was saying to me, “We are destroying you and your culture to recreate you in our image.” Palestinian cities and towns, which grow organically – really, an amalgamation of family homes and municipal buildings – are now qualitatively inferior. The Palestinian village is old, antiquated, disorganized, dysfunctional, anarchical, loud and dirty. By contrast, Rawabi is new, organized, efficient, beautiful, clean, ordered and ‘American.’ Rawabi is the tangible materialization of the American mission civilisatrice in the West Bank, not to mention the project to alienate Palestinians from one another.
But it’s not only that. All of the classical critiques of the colonial relationship apply. The occupier and its patron state have succeeded in creating a faux and unproductive Palestinian bourgeoisie, one whose primary focus is on the trappings of material living. It is taken for granted that ‘Western’ means ‘virtuous’ and Western modes of living, down to the pizza delivery service we wish we had, are culturally superior. The inferiority complex, the overwhelming desire to join the club of ‘civilized’ people, and the shame of always coming up short must drive men like Salaam Fayyad to anxious near-insanity. More importantly, their energies are almost completely dedicated to the impossible task of gaining acceptance through mimicry. I’ll wear my smart suits, comb my hair just so, snigger at the inferiority of the Islamist mind, sleep uneasily in Rawabi, and maybe Ehud Barak will invite me to his next dinner party where I’ll make witty and sardonic remarks to impress his wife. Mimicry takes so much effort that there isn’t much left over for the humanizing and uplifting task of agitating for equality; the key to national and individual self-esteem and worth.
‘Black Skin, White Masks’ by Frantz Fanon and ‘The Bluest Eye’ by Toni Morrison both do a good job of describing the psychological pressures on the oppressed – something I thought Palestinians were mostly immune to. But the quote by the Palestinian in the Huffington Post article, “It’s a dream to own a house here, in a new city where you work and live quietly with your kids…. It will be similar to life in the U.S.” forces me to reconsider. This man’s dream is to mimic American modes of living. He wants to live quietly and see the Mediterranean Sea on a clear day, just there, beyond Tel Aviv. Where is the compulsion to actually visit the sea, off-limits to him because of this race? Where is the denunciation of material and ‘quiet’ living when that ‘quiet’ living comes at the expense of your freedom? What corruption forces you into ‘quiet’ subordination in plain view of your own children? Where is your dignity?
That’s saying nothing about the probably predatory contractors and financiers attached to the project. They want us to take out 30-year mortgages for the privilege of living in Rawabi. By all means, export the entire credit market system to Palestine. I’d be overjoyed to buy Rawabi mortgage-backed-securities – with an inflated risk-premium, of course. But tell me, what was the price of access? How did these men manage to curry favor with the Americans and Israelis to build this project? Who do they know who knows whom? How is it that most Palestinians can barely secure permits to build on their own land, but the Jewish National Fund is donating trees to Rawabi? I’ll channel Hannah Arendt and say that the banality of profit-making knows no evil.
There’s nothing wrong with Rawabi if it existed in a vacuum. It’s not my aesthetic preference, but other people are free to live in any type of structure they like. The problem, of course, is that Rawabi does not exist in a vacuum. It is only one more horrifying manifestation of Zionist rot, both Jewish and Palestinian.
Ahmed Moor is a Gaza born Palestinian-American freelance journalist living in Beirut.
Yeah, why not seduce and manipulate Palestinian dignity to suck up to a poor version of the tufted caged canary–Americans love it! So do the Israelis! We will all shoot you if you
balk–or at least make your life miserable, with no hope of a career.
It certainly doesn’t look like most American cities, either. It looks too planned. It looks too white. It looks Israeli, to me.
How dare they try to raise the quality of life in the West Bank for Palestinians!!!!
Don’t they see we Americans want a place where we can visit people in squalor and be indignant at the “oppressors” who put them there!! I want to sleep on the dusty floor of a concrete shack when I throw stones at soldiers as a form of my “non-violent” protest..it is so much more authentic!
then I can go back to my American home and play my playstation and watch flavor of love and truly appreciate the struggle for freedom my arab brothers are going through
You are such a jackass, it’s depressing.
Hey guys, the US cares about the Palestinians! Just like the Haitians!
link to news.yahoo.com
Obama said the US ‘stands with’ Haiti!
See? It’s really that simple. Don’t think, just read the headline! The US is building Palestinians homes! Yay! Let’s go back to watching TV and reading gossip mags, and let our government continue to save the day! God bless America!
ignore the nutcase
Check out his YouTube page, and the crowd he attracts. One is essentially a Jewish Supremacist and Fascist (‘Muslims are pigs’ sort of thing).
Cliff,
It’s just a link, not necessarily his. Take potsherd’s advice.
Einshtine,
Dirt is more dignified than a gilded cage.
An honor concept alien to you, evidently.
You remind me of someone who spits on their shoe then uses their sleeve to shine and buff it up.
and Taxi, where do you live? where are you typing that message?
what the hell do you know about poverty and hunger? you ever live on the street?
you are such a pumpous insulting jackass…only you can help the poor people…give them money or a better life and then its not genuine
puh-lease spare me your hypocritical bs
Einshtine,
Did I hit a nerve? Was my description of your shoe-shinning technique uncannily accurate?
If you’re sooooo concerned with the plight of Palestinians, why don’t you give them their stolen land back?
As it happens, because I’ve never stolen anyone’s land or killed anyone ‘s child or grandmother, I live very comfortably in my own skin – thanks for asking.
really and where do you live Taxi? answer the question, defender of the poor! I bet you are living in the US…just killing babies by remote control from drone planes and keeping the poor poorer and stealing land from Iraqis and Afghanis…
you certainly didnt hit a nerve with me but maybe with some of the victims of your country’s terrorist actions. Here is a project to help improve the quality of life of 40,000 people and you sitting at your comfortable desk on your superpowered computer with high speed internet speak for the people and cry out for “dirt is better than a gilded cage”
you are a real hero…let me spit shine your shoes for you boss..
Troll Sat Alone On His Seat Of Stone
Here’s my shoes – spit-shine away Einshtine :)
And while you’re at it, apologize to the Palestinians, give them back their stolen land and pay up some reparational blood-money.
Until you’ve done this – don’t bother me with your lame hasbara corn-cheese.
Imbecile!
my hasbara corn cheese?!?!?
look how you never answer a question.
i give a damn about palestinians or israelis….i want justice for my people..but it seems if you ain’t jewish no one gives a damn about humanity…unless of course an earthquake hits.
Einstein, please press alt+f4, and jump into a volcano.
Cliff, that’s cruel! How could you condone that sort of treatment of a volcano.
Cool old song – thanks!
You’re welcome, Taxi. As any hobbit will tell you, there’s nothing like a good song to chase away the trolls.
RE: “Einstein says”
THE REAL EINSTEIN: “…The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. … For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstition. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong … have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything “chosen” about them.
In general I find it painful that you claim a privileged position and try to defend it by two walls of pride, an external one as a man and an internal one as a Jew. As a man you claim, so to speak, a dispensation from causality otherwise accepted, as a Jew of monotheism. But a limited causality is no longer a causality at all, as our wonderful Spinoza recognized with all incision…” – Albert Einstein, 1954
SOURCE – link to lettersofnote.com
RE: “…‘Western’ means ‘virtuous’ and Western modes of living…are culturally superior…” – MOOR
MY COMMENT: Let’s head to the mall, y’all!
your country’s terrorist actions?
I though you lived in Georgia, Mr. Gee Chee.
I am from Georgia, you racist.
MRW,
Consistency is so overrated. Thank God for Orthodox, Jewish, pro-settler, anti-gentile, anti-liberal, non-Jewish, anti-Semitic, anti-slavery, pro-South, anti-war, pro-Arab, colonialist trolls.
Sorry, that should read “Thank The One True God …
All you need to do later, is build a “security wall”, similar to the one surrounding Bethlehem, around Rawabi and it can easily house 160000 – 200000 Arabs on barely missable few acres, what’s not to like?
Eva, in about 30 years the whole area will be ripe for gentrification. Divert some water to make beaches, and it will be just like Ft. Lauderdale. I wonder what the new name will be?
“‘How dare they try to raise the quality of life in the West Bank for Palestinians!!!!”‘
For Palestinians did you say? Bulldozing homes might be an improvement to the quality fo life if and only if a newer homes is built to replace it.
Ahmed, you’ve done it again. I would only add that the “concept” surely also draws upon the “shopping-mall doctrine” of peace. The natives are violent because they have nothing to lose. If they had all the “benefits” of western life, they would never fire rockets or blow themselves up in crowded markets or be drawn to those smelly imams with their silly hennaed beards. They’d be too busy shopping and visiting theme parks! Besides, two countries with McDonald’s (halal Big Macs are ok too) have never gone to war. It’s enough to bring shopping and the Golden Arches to a small middle-class. They’ll keep the rest in check – because they’ll have something to lose! The whole thing jives perfectly with Bibi’s plan (mostly propaganda of course, but a plan nonetheless) of peace through economic prosperity (at least for the “good” WB natives), and that smashing success: exporting democracy (31 flavours).
“Besides, two countries with McDonald’s (halal Big Macs are ok too) have never gone to war. It’s enough to bring shopping and the Golden Arches to a small middle-class. ”
What happened to McDavid’s?
McDavid’s? You’ve got to be kidding. We’re talking about the only democracy in the Middle East here! Nothing less than the original Golden Arches will do – even as you approach the Holy City (Mevasseret Shopping Mall) or join up with your unit (Golani Junction) before heading up to Marjayoun or Dahiyeh (any MacDos in Lebanon?).
McDavid’s is at least as good as McDonald’s. Wasn’t there a lawsuit against McDavid’s for copyright infringement for using colden arches as a logo?
Subjugation with benefits.
A) US companies build the Palestinian city, skims the profits for construction.
B) Israel bombs the city, US companies skim the profits from the arms sales.
C) US companies offer “reconstruction,” Iraq-style, and skim the profits.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Why complain? I’m sure it’ll be just like Ft. Lauderdale when it’s finished.
Phil has a link to Sacc0′s Footnotes in Gaza–if you have not gone there yet, here’s a brief
show of what you are in for–the illustrated book could have been sub-titled “Rescuing actual history from the hasbara fantasy world of Dick Witty” to get the attention of Mondweiss travelers:
link to counterpunch.org
“I’LL TURN YOU INTO ME – BECAUSE I AM A LIAR”
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Than a few years down the road –
SWEET HOME UNDER WHITE CLOUDS
Reminds me a bit of the MOVE catastrophe in Philadelphia. A law school classmate of mine from that city couldn’t understand why residents of the home that Philadelphia police dropped C4 on, setting it afire, were so upset when, after all, the city government later rebuilt the damaged area, the new structures being much nicer than the delapidated old. Economic benefits are important, however as any competent psychologist will tell you, equally important is a sense of autonomy.
Predictable rants.
The design is certainly open for revision. What isn’t likely open for revision is that the design represents a desire to bring Palestine into the world of global trade (a necessity in the modern world).
The era of the quaint is past. The design features for the present-future are a discussion in process.
Sure Richard, they will try to bring them into the “global economy,” a few who are the fat around the midsection of the colonial design will prosper, the rest will enter the global economy and its new life in a box – shaped like a coffin.
Many here have never seen the plans to exploit the Palestinians, I have miles and miles of piles of them, and the eventual Gaza ghettoize process. Actually, the plan for the global rape of the ME can be found even on the .gov sites of the US. making everything market friendly and “sustainable.”
Palestine is slated to join the “world of global trade” alongside Haiti, sweatshops full of exploited labor for the US consumer market, local agriculture plowed under the corporate latifundia, people depending on overpriced imports they can’t afford.
“The era of the quaint is past. The design features for the present-future are a discussion in process”
That sounds positively dangerous.
Witty, there are politics behind this architecture. That is what people are discussing. The aesthetic/etc. is symbolic of the politics.
The commentary and the Ahmed’s words (as always) were spot-on.
You are just an intellectual crook, doing your rounds. Move on the the next thread now, troll.
Who will come to live in a planned development that has no access road? And, so the USA federal government will underwrite the mortgages (when it cannot underwrite such here, and has to borrow from an increasingly reticent China to do so)? All gonna look like a USA planned development suburb? Now, there’s a good idea. Jeez, even in Haiti a small elite benefited from all those years of USA involvement for the benefit of the Haitian people. Hey, there were native American Cavalry scouts too.
link to cnsnews.com
We support the Haitian people, and oh yeah, we support our troops in harms way too–they are all heroes. (Dear daughter, just don’t date one.)
Looks like N’s idea of economic development for the Pals. How about demolishing the
siege wall, just so Pals could go back and forth to work, engage in minimal trade locally? Naw–let’s import an American strip shopping mall without proper road access and totally dependent on foreign aid for survival.
It’s striking how similar the photos of the Haiti earthquake were to the scenes of destruction in Gaza last year.
And what did Obama say then? Nothing.
Just business as usual. States don’t have morals, only interests. That’s why we go to Haiti with ‘aide’ and not Palestine. We send weapons and misery into Palestine.
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“It’s striking how similar the photos of the Haiti earthquake were to the scenes of destruction in Gaza last year. And what did Obama say then? Nothing.”
My very observation too, Cliff!
Just for the record, you can get pizza delivered in Ramallah, and no one seems to mind. I’m agnostic on Rawabi, but not on pizza. Angelo’s and Pronto are the best in Ramallah — yummmm! A bit pricey, but everything’s pricey in Ramallah.
Rawabi looks like it will be another Al Tireh, but with a slightly longer commute and better planning. But Al Tireh kind of depresses me, too. There’s no community, no small charming businesses like on Main Street in Ramallah, no organic Palestinian je ne sais quois. The explosion of Nablus is pretty disheartening, too — ugly new buildings everywhere.
Not sure what else to do, though, other than keep fighting for freedom so people can actually survive in their own villages and don’t have to move en masse to cities. But in the meantime, parents have to raise kids and should have a decent chance to do so. From the sound of it, these homes aren’t much more expensive than Ramallah homes, they’re not built on stolen land, and there will certainly be good public transport, as there is all over the West Bank. No? Am I missing something?
Pamela, you are probably the only person posting who has had an opportunity to live in the West Bank. This makes you want to actually look out for the well being of the people there, not just try to make some sort of political statement you know the whole fuck the West/colonialism/the US/Europe mentality. I think many on this blog forget there are real people behind these stories….
I was truly surprised that Ahmed would find it so repulsive though, it is his people who will have a better life because of these buildings, American financed and inspired or not…
“better life” how? What’s better about it, yonira?
Tent or Apartment Complex/Condo?
which is better potsherd?
Do you suppose that most Palestinians are living in tents, yonira? Except for the people thrown out of their houses by Zionist thugs.
You can build all the expensive condos you want in the West Bank but they still don’t address the fact that Palestinians live under a brutal never ending military occupation.
And they still don’t address Israeli imposed apartheid.
In the end this Rawabi city is just a PR stunt. Even if the city were to be built to its full specifications it would not change the fact that Palestinians living in Rawabi would still be subjected to the laws of Israeli apartheid and a military occupation.
The Apartheid government in South Africa made similar proposals for the “Black” populations living under its jurisdictions, and we all saw how that turned out.
I think many on this blog forget there are real people behind these stories….
Btw was that comment supposed to be a joke? We are all here because we actually care about the suffering being imposed upon the Palestinian people by the Israeli government with our hard earned tax dollars.
We know quite well that there are people in these stories.
Yonira,
Your view on this has the subtlety of a Caterpillar D9, but not nearly as much sophistication. Projects like this can and are opposed for many different reasons (social, environmental, aesthetic, etc.) all over the world, and there is a significant body of evidence supporting such objections. These would apply, even if it were just or primarily about better housing for middle class Palestinians. Ahmed’s main point however was that the project “does not exist in a vacuum”. Palestinian lives, lands and culture have been continuously raped for over sixty years; those who live in the West Bank have virtually no control over anything in their lives, and their needs – first and foremost, those of the poorest who will not get anywhere near Rawabi – are endless; and they and their leadership have been duped again and again by empty and duplicitous promises (not least economic promises and intentional corruption).
Offering a very small number of Palestinians a superficially American-style neighbourhood, when they have no political freedom, no freedom of movement, speech, or pursuit of anything – let alone happiness – seems like one huge cruel joke, even more grotesque than the superficial 21st-century American lifestyle “enjoyed” by armed settlers on (recently) stolen land.
What the hell is the matter with you? Are you purposefully dense? Is that the new strategy of Zionist trolls?
These new Israeli-tested, US approved, Palestinian settlements are a POLITICAL STATEMENT.
It’s not made out of goodwill. If that were the case, then why COLONIZE Palestinian land in the first place?
You think the US and Israel just RANDOMLY decided to build the Palestinians a neighborhood out of generosity?
Why is Gaza under siege? Why is Israel able to build settlements in the first place? Why is pressure from America so ineffective?
Yet, this must be an act of plain, folksy, good-will, right yonira?
I can’t believe you chalk up the antagonism to this construction as a ‘mentality’. You trivialize the Occupation and colonization of Palestine. And then end with:
Fuck you, schizo. You don’t give a shit about the Palestinians. You are a Zionist tool. It’s because people care about the Palestinians, that they THINK about the politics behind EXACTLY these kind of actions. It’s because people don’t forget the very real oppression the Palestinians are under, daily, that they maintain the a sense of urgency in their commentary.
Anyone, who gives a damn about truth/justice in I-P would maintain that sense of urgency. It is important to do so, when you consider the speed and effectiveness at which Israel and the US are able to set facts on the ground, ignore history (even going back 1 year, like Gaza), and continually control the rules of the game.
There is no moral center to your commentary. You’re so desperate you’ll say anything at any given time to ‘score points’. Just like that fucking losing, Witty – who when the Haitians were going through their current tragedy, referenced a PR charade by Israel w/ respect to the lack of a PR charade by ‘the Arab States’.
Whoops, meant to say ‘fucking loser’ in reference to Dick Witty. Pardon the misspelling.
Yonira, most people here care about Palestinians as human beings, and we’re allowed to have differing opinions. As I said, I’m agnostic on Rawabi. There may be hidden dimensions to it that I’m not aware of. I just don’t think it should be dismissed out of hand because it looks superficially like a settlement (the settlements aren’t inherently bad — what makes them monstrous is that they’re illegally built on stolen land) or because it adopts certain lifestyle choices that are considered ‘American’ or ‘European.’
I’ve spent a lot of time in Palestinian villages and in Palestinian cities. That lifestyle works well for some people. Other people prefer something quieter, more anonymous. (You never appreciate your anonymity more than after you’ve tried to date in a Palestinian village!) And I’d rather those people move to Rawabi than to California.
Just a thought. I could be wrong. Like I say, I don’t know that much about it. And it looks like a moot point if Israel doesn’t grant them an access road.
Which underscores the most important point in all this — Rawabi isn’t being built in a vacuum. It’s being built under occupation. The occupation still controls it. It still controls everything. And there will never be peace while this state of affairs lasts, no matter how many “economic improvement” are made.
You can’t put a price on freedom.
Potsherd, that’s right: the only American thing about this development is the mortgage financing. This project, architecturally, is modeled on an Israeli settlement. No question about it.
It is a blight on a hilltop that might as well be one of the nearby ones that are built for a ‘different’ clientèle.
Even if one were to accept the premise of such a development project in context of Occupied Palestine, Rawabi is designed utterly without taste, without shame, without original vision.
www.rawabi.ps
info@rawabi.ps
RE: “…‘Western’ means ‘virtuous’ and Western modes of living…are culturally superior…” – MOOR
MY COMMENT: Let’s head to the mall, y’all!
alas yes – for instance there’s one just opposite the american university of beirut.
and i agree – yislam timmak ya ahmed.
i can’t believe the bit about “plant a tree for palestine” – here we go deliberately aping the zionists…
Whats the guarantee that Palestinians will actually end up living there? Rather than Jewish settlers?
Well, and then there’s that too.
Yeah, you got it. This is nothing more than gentrification backed by a gun.
Every city dweller already knows the playbook: during construction, the developers claim that they’re improving ‘the neighborhood.’ Afterwards, price out the neighbors and stock the place with new blood. Repeat until the old neighborhood, with its wretched intransigents, is gone.
Looking at the artist’s rendering of the development again, I noticed that the oval concentration on the crown of the hill and the row of institutional looking buildings above it resemble a handgrenade. Or a testicle and spermatic cord. These architect types always have a symbolic gesture in mind.
I need to interject here. There are many flaws in the argument of Mr. Moor’s blog post, as well as with the comments that followed. Perhaps it will be easiest to do this in list form:
1. Where, oh where, do you see any red tiled roofs, Mr. Moor? There are none. Completely fictitious comments may make your argument more colorful, but it doesn’t help drive your point home in the long run.
2. Also, tearing apart the quote from “the Palestinian,” who touchingly remarks that he dreams of having a quiet and safe place to raise his 6 children…very tasteful. Very. And asking him where his dignity is? That is simply indecent. What do you know of this man? Of his life? And how did that, in any way whatsoever, help your argument?
Also, I want to make one more point beyond that bizarre personal attack on “the Palestinian” who apparently has not, for whatever reason, earned the right to decide for himself where he wants to live (I guess he should have requested both your personal political analysis of and approval on the matter before daring to open his mouth…Oh, that blubbering fool). Equating someone who lives in the West Bank wanting a view of the sea with acceptance of racism against him is absolutely absurd. If a two-state solution is ever reached, and Palestine is given independence and all the things we hope to come with that, will he still not live in this area near his family and friends and job? Will the appeal in having a view of the sea from his neighborhood not remain? It’s amazing the things people can find fault in when that is their sole aim.
3. Equating wanting to live in Rawabi with wanting to be invited to dinner with Ehud Barack? Now there’s a solid connection.
4. The mortgage program. This is a revolutionary program in the West Bank. Thousands of Palestinian families are set to benefit tremendously from it. And who doesn’t need a mortgage to buy a home? Why is that appropriate anywhere but Palestine? I would love, really love, for either Mr. Moor or any of those who criticized that aspect of the story to explain themselves– to actually make a clear point as to what is wrong with a functioning mortgage program.
5. To Jan_gdyn:
Yes, it is true that Israeli settlements tend to be situated on hilltops but guess what else tend to be situated on hilltops? Palestinian villages. Yep, for centuries. Just wanted to note that, as you clearly have never visited the area, or you would be aware of that little factoid. Also, “This project, architecturally, is modeled on an Israeli settlement. No question about it.”
Fascinating, did you come to that conclusion based on the one drawing Mr. Moor presents above? Because surely you do not have access to the detailed design drawings that the Palestinian engineers and planners have worked tirelessly to create. If you did, you would know that a great deal of effort has been put towards creating a place that is a unique fusion of Palestinian and western architectural traditions and one that is unlike the one-size-fits-all, red-roofed settlements nearby. Yes it is well-planned, yes it is organized. And that is where the similarities end. And simply because Palestinians haven’t done this on a large scale before now doesn’t mean it should be attributed to or limited to Israeli settlers. After all, they did not invent urban planning!
By the way, just as an aside, you should probably inform those Palestinian engineers and planners that this, the project of their lives, has been “designed utterly without taste, without shame, without original vision.” And you would know, because you have clearly demonstrated your expertise on all things West Bank and all things Rawabi.
6. I’d also like to note that there is a general trend among the author of this post and those who commented on it. It is one of anti-middle class/pro-traditional living. But I wonder, do you hold the same convictions with regard to your home countries and cities or only with regard to Palestine? I also wonder, have any of you ever been to Palestine? Better yet, lived in Palestine? Because I do. And if you did, I think you would have different opinions. The advancement and growth of a middle class in Palestine and a progression toward things more “modern” or yes, what we might even call “western” certainly is occurring, but it is nothing terribly new and it is nothing being forced upon them. If you would meet and get to know the young adults (and the older generations, for that matter) of the real Palestine – not the Palestine of your imagination and news blurbs – you would see that Palestinians are just like anyone else and they want the same things as anyone else. And what is that, exactly, you ask? Well, ladies and gentlemen, it varies! Some want to stay in the house of their grandparents (assuming they’ve still got it) and some want to live in bustling, charmingly disheveled downtown Ramallah, and some want a visa to France. And some like the idea of Rawabi and are eager to buy a brand new home on a quiet, well-manicured street a short walk from the restaurants, cafes, and shops of downtown pedestrian promenade and a few minutes-drive from a state-of-the-art new health clinic.
You may be more comfortable, for whatever reason, with Palestinians staying in their traditional villages or preexisting cities (which, by the way, are painfully overcrowded and with municipal services overextended almost to the point of collapse) and without mortgages and without jobs (Rawabi will create 10,000 new jobs, making it the largest private sector job generation in Palestinian history)…but that is not what they want. And isn’t it about damn time that everyone let the Palestinians speak for themselves? Although clearly not, as I see how well the “the Palestinian” was received.