News flash! Peace in Palestine is about to break out. The occupation is about to end? Of course not. But wealthy Arabs can live in lovely, high-rise buildings:
Dusk has fallen on a terraced hillside and workers clearing the red earth hurry to finish planting trees in the twilight, their labor the initial step in the construction of the first-ever planned Palestinian city.
The city, with a construction price tag of some $350 million, already has its city limits registered, a name — Rawabi, Arabic for hills — and funding from the government of Qatar. It’s located about five miles north of Ramallah.
The project’s Ramallah-based developers, who plan to start building soon, hail the project as a prized and much-needed example of Palestinian economic development. Israeli officials are among those citing it as a symbol of Palestinian progress.