Rawabi
Rawabi is the name of the first new Palestinian town to be built in the West Bank region of Samaria using funds donated by Western countries. It is planned for 50,000 inhabitants and will be located between Ramallah (the PA capital) and Nablus (Shechem in Hebrew). Because of its location it requires new access roads, and one of these must go through Israeli territory. The local Israeli inhibitants of Binyamina are unhappy about this, they fear an upsurge of terrorist violence as has happened whenever Palestinian population centers have unhindered access to Israeli territory.
Rawabi is being built as a cooperative project between a private company, the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company, managed by Bashar Masri and the Palestine Authority. It is a tribute to the economic success of the West Bank PA area as a result of millions of dollars invested by the EU and the US in the PA, through the government of PM Salim Fayyad, who is an economist who is considered both effective and honest. He was appointed by Pres. Abbas, even though he represents not Fatah but the Third Way (Palestine Democratic Party), which has only 2 members in the Palestine Parliament, himself and Hanan Ashrawi.
As a result of the policy of the Quartet (US, EU, UN and Russia) who appointed Tony Blair to be their representative to the PA as an economic advisor, and a result of PM Benyamin Netanyahu's policy of improving the situation of the Palestinian Arab people, by removing checkpoints and by allowing them freely to export via Israeli territory and ports, the growth rate of the West Bank has shot up to 8% (compared to 0.5% for Israel and much worse for Gaza). However, don't expect them to show any gratitude for this support. They take it and ask for more. At the same time that the PA is engaging in indirect "proximity" peace talks with Israel they have officially sponsored (by PM Fayyad and Pres. Abbas) a boycott of Israeli goods produced on the West Bank, and this is spreading to all Israeli goods, with houses being searched by the PA police and large scale dumping and destruction of Israeli-produced products, at the same time that Israel is allowing them to use Israeli facilities to export their goods! What hypocrisy.
The question of roads came up again recently when the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that route 443, that connects Modiin to Jerusalem, must be opened to Palestinian Arab traffic. Many Israelis are against this because the road was closed a few years ago to Palestinians after 6 Jews were killed in several terrorist attacks, mainly drive-by shootings. There are about 6 Arab villages that will now once again be connected to route 443, although there will still be IDF checkpoints to monitor the cars. When the first Israeli is shot then they will have to close the road again, too bad! You can be sure it won't be one of the judges or their family that are the victims.
Note that while the Palestinians are free to build a new town and anything they like on the West Bank, before any agreement has been arrived at, Israel is bound by a one-sided and unjust policy that freezes all building, and this is imposed by the leader of the free world, under President Barack Obama. Let's hope it ends in September as promised.
Rawabi is being built as a cooperative project between a private company, the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company, managed by Bashar Masri and the Palestine Authority. It is a tribute to the economic success of the West Bank PA area as a result of millions of dollars invested by the EU and the US in the PA, through the government of PM Salim Fayyad, who is an economist who is considered both effective and honest. He was appointed by Pres. Abbas, even though he represents not Fatah but the Third Way (Palestine Democratic Party), which has only 2 members in the Palestine Parliament, himself and Hanan Ashrawi.
As a result of the policy of the Quartet (US, EU, UN and Russia) who appointed Tony Blair to be their representative to the PA as an economic advisor, and a result of PM Benyamin Netanyahu's policy of improving the situation of the Palestinian Arab people, by removing checkpoints and by allowing them freely to export via Israeli territory and ports, the growth rate of the West Bank has shot up to 8% (compared to 0.5% for Israel and much worse for Gaza). However, don't expect them to show any gratitude for this support. They take it and ask for more. At the same time that the PA is engaging in indirect "proximity" peace talks with Israel they have officially sponsored (by PM Fayyad and Pres. Abbas) a boycott of Israeli goods produced on the West Bank, and this is spreading to all Israeli goods, with houses being searched by the PA police and large scale dumping and destruction of Israeli-produced products, at the same time that Israel is allowing them to use Israeli facilities to export their goods! What hypocrisy.
The question of roads came up again recently when the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that route 443, that connects Modiin to Jerusalem, must be opened to Palestinian Arab traffic. Many Israelis are against this because the road was closed a few years ago to Palestinians after 6 Jews were killed in several terrorist attacks, mainly drive-by shootings. There are about 6 Arab villages that will now once again be connected to route 443, although there will still be IDF checkpoints to monitor the cars. When the first Israeli is shot then they will have to close the road again, too bad! You can be sure it won't be one of the judges or their family that are the victims.
Note that while the Palestinians are free to build a new town and anything they like on the West Bank, before any agreement has been arrived at, Israel is bound by a one-sided and unjust policy that freezes all building, and this is imposed by the leader of the free world, under President Barack Obama. Let's hope it ends in September as promised.
posted by Jack Cohen at 6:38 PM
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