AFTER four decades of Jewish settlement that has altered the West Bank beyond recognition, Palestinians are finally poised to make their own addition to the occupied territory's map.
Groundwork is to start within six months on the first planned Palestinian town, Rawabi, meaning "hills", seven miles north of Ramallah, the West Bank's commercial capital and the seat of the Palestinian Authority.
The town will initially house 2
5,000 people in 5,000 units on land the Bayti Real Estate and Investment has bought from private owners. Rawabi's commercial area is to include shops, restaurants and offices.
The Palestinian authority is to provide sewerage, water, electricity and other infrastructure. If the £150 million project succeeds, another two towns are to be built.
Bashar Masri, Bayti's chief executive, said: "We are definitely changing the map of the West Bank in real estate terms."
That is bold talk, but there is at least one major problem: a new access road seen as crucial for Rawabi is opposed on security grounds by Israel, the ultimate power in the West Bank.
The issue has taken on new importance in the run-up to next week's Palestine Investment Conference in Bethlehem, hosted by the authority and with the assistance of Tony Blair, the international community's Middle East envoy. The hope of the conference is to convince sceptics to invest in the West Bank.
Trying to strike an optimistic tone for the meeting, Mr Blair told a press conference in Jerusalem yesterday that there had been some progress in persuading Israel to ease its checkpoint and roadblock regime in the West Bank.
Subject to Israeli security assessments, four checkpoints were to be removed, seven improved to ease traffic and one moved to another location. According to the United Nations, there are 621 Israeli army checkpoints, barriers or other obstacles on West Bank roads, up from 580 in February.
Bayti and the authority insist there is no reason Israel should thwart the plans for Rawabi because it is located in territory relinquished to the Palestinians under the 1993 Oslo agreement.
But the new road would have to pass through part of what is known as "area C", territory that remains under full Israeli control under the Oslo agreement.
Asked for Israel's view of the road plan, a government spokesman said: "Building roads in area C is problematic. It is mainly a rural area and new roads can enable terrorists to move freely and create security problems. The road could be misused. And it is not necessary because we have removed the checkpoint that was blocking access to the area."
Mr Masri says the project is aimed at addressing a housing shortage in the West Bank. "Our motivation is to bring our experience and that of others to help jump-start the economy and create jobs," he said.
DON'T NEGOTIATE WITH BARBARIANS, SAYS ACTORTHE American actor Jon Voight visited Israeli victims of Palestinian rocket fire in Sderot yesterday, describing the area as a "war zone" and saying Israel should not negotiate with the "barbarians" behind the attacks.
"When I see these children, from my perspective they are traumatised children from a war zone," Voight said. "You are on the front line."
On Monday, Voight, the estranged father of actress Angelina Jolie, met families affected by Palestinian attacks. One man sat in a wheelchair, missing both his legs after a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 2002. Another man still had his arm in a sling from an attack on a now-dismantled Israeli settlement bloc in the northern Gaza Strip.
Voight said his experiences led him to believe Israel should not negotiate with Palestinian militants for a truce. "They are barbarians," he said. "They are relentless, looking to destroy (Israel]. If somebody breaks your leg, don't give another. Don't play this game."
Voight was there as a guest of Chabad, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish outreach programme that helps Israeli victims of militant attacks.
