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linger there. There's abundant reason for
skepticism. The project's future depends on
the Israeli authorities' willingness to allow
for the construction of access roads in
"Area C," or West Bank territory under the
direct control of Israel. The sole existing
route into the city only exists because the
Israeli government, after years of
bureaucratic and high-level diplomatic
wrangling, granted Rawabi's developers a
permit for a "temporary" road. Technically,
they will have to destroy the road when the
current permission expires. And even if the
Israelis agree to make the road permanent,
one two-lane route is hardly adequate for a
city of 45,000 people. Developers claim it
isn't even adequate to the needs of the
current construction site.

Water is another challenge. Negotiations
with Israel and the Palestinian Water
Authority are ongoing, and developers say
they have held in excess of 100 meetings
with Israeli officials on water-related issues
alone. Developers admit that they aren't
sure where the city's water resources will
eventually come from, and the construction
site only got running water two months
ago.

And they'll admit that attracting jobs to the
site is an even bigger challenge than Israel's
West Bank regime. Rawabi isn't meant to
be a bedroom community of Ramallah. It's
meant to be a self-contained city, with
office and retail space. The jobs haven't

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