Rawabi

A model of the new Palestinian city of Rawabi is displayed at the center of the Rawabi project site, Feb. 23, 2014. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

The Palestinian city that mimics its colonizers

The West Bank city of Rawabi illustrates how Palestinian capitalists are trying — and failing — to form a middle class by mirroring Israel's neoliberal policies.

By Matan Kaminer August 29, 2021

+972 Magazine blogger Orly Noy meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

We have a partner for peace, his name is Mahmoud Abbas

Following a meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Orly Noy is left with just one question: who is the real partner for peace here? I was invited to join a delegation of Palestinian citizens of Israel, most of them residents of Jaffa, to Ramallah on Sunday, in order to meet with the Committee for…

By Orly Noy February 20, 2017

Is crossing through Israel considered normalization? Saber Rebai's performance at the Rawabi Amphitheater (Samah Salaime)

The Tunisian star who filled Palestinians with hope — for one night

For one night, Tunisian megastar Saber Rebaï brought Palestinians in the West Bank just a modicum of normalcy. Rawabi, Arabic for “hills,” is a sleek name for a Palestinian city that was recently built between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Surrounded by settlements on all sides, the place looks like a standard Israeli bedroom community and has been dubbed “the…

By Samah Salaime August 23, 2016

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A construction worker at Rawabi. (Photo by Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

The dehydration of economic peace

The irony of Rawabi is that everyone, in both Israel and Palestine, seems to want it to happen. Nevertheless, Palestine’s first planned city still lacks a stable water connection, its continued cash flow is threatened and despite their best intentions, interested parties the globe-over cannot bring the project any farther forward. Officials involved in the project say…

By +972 Magazine October 2, 2014

A Palestinian youth during the weekly protest against the Wall in the West Bank village of Bil'in, November 1, 2013. One Palestinian youth was shot in the leg with live ammunition during the demonstration and evacuated to Ramallah hospital. (Photo by: Hamde Abu Rahma/ Actviestills.org)

From resistance to existence: A week in photos – November 1-6

This week: Palestinians demonstrate against the Israeli separation wall and U.S. foreign policy, construction and demolition of Palestinian homes, Afghan asylum seekers struggle in Europe, a funeral for a Palestinian who died in Israeli custody, a hearing on the Prawer-Begin Plan, animal rights activists in Tel Aviv, and Palestinians seek water access in the Jordan…

By Activestills November 7, 2013

So this Arab tries to buy a settlement. No, for real. (UPDATED)

The Arabs can’t have our land. And they can’t have our young girls, either. And they certainly can’t have our settlements! What happens when a Palestinian tries to buy a settlement? You heard me: buy a settlement. Well, for this you’d have to ask Palestinian businessman Bashar al-Masri. Ever since al Masri announced his company…

By Ami Kaufman January 10, 2011