Wherefore Rawabi?

Ramallah has been expanding rapidly over the past few decades and particularly in the last 10 years. Immigration (especially from the north of the West Bank) is making this city more and more populous and even causing social tensions at times. Recently there have been several incidences of prejudice towards people from the north, particularly Jenin. The prejudice slur "Thai" has been used to insult northern people and the government moved quick to ban this word and punish anyone who uses it in a discriminatory form. The word Thai has nothing to do with Thai people per se, however it's referencing Thai people's immigration to other Asian countries in search for work, often earning very low wages. Immigration from the north has angered people as this has caused an increase in the supply of low-wage labour, which affects people's earnings.

The property development sector is now capitalising on the increase in housing demand and are building at will, with minimum regulation and scrutiny as to what is being built. Of course that's an exaggeration, there are probably procedures for acquiring permits and planning permission etc., but what is actually happening in my opinion is sporadic construction of buildings with an indifference to the look and feel of the city's built environment.

I figured I can make use of my dad's SLR and take some pictures to illustrate my thoughts. I was actually a bit surprised because some of the pictures don't really make the buildings look that bad. In fact from a distance the buildings look nice.

But I'm more concerned about what things look like on the neighbourhood level. If you drive around the Al-Tireh suburb (one of the areas subject to massive urban expansion) you start to notice how buildings are crammed next to each other like a Sim City fail.

NYC?

Property developer advertising their 4th housing project

Hotel built right in front of a house

The picture above shows a once empty valley in front of my house (where in the past you could spot deer). The 5-6 buildings you see in the front literally appeared over the past 10 years.

Maybe I'm sounding hyper-critical and reactionary as I moan about all the new buildings. It is true that the West Bank has limited land to build on, and there is only so much construction skills and quality available. But surely some sort of coordination between property developers could be facilitated to make the built environment look more appealing, and I don't think that's being too idealistic. Even taking into consideration that there aren't many resources at the disposal of developers, individual buildings still aren't the problem. There are some very nice buildings that are well built like the ones in the two pictures below, this further supports my point that the problem lies in planning and coordination.

A couple of weeks ago I came across a possible solution to some of the problems faced by property development in the West Bank: Rawabi. Rawabi (http://www.rawabi.ps/index.php), currently under construction, is set to be the first Palestinian planned-city, consisting of 10,000 homes with a population of 40,000 people. It will also have schools, hospitals, and shopping centres. I visited the construction site with my family a few weeks ago and we were given a demonstration about the development.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130703232412-rawabi-park-story-top.jpg

I can see why Rawabi looks appealing, it's offering affordable housing developed in conjunction with the internationally acclaimed Qatari Diar real estate company. It's considered a public-private partnership but is funded almost exclusively by private investors. According to the Rawabi website the master plan includes feedback from "months of surveys and focus groups among targeted homeowner groups". The project also aims to be environmentally responsible. This of course is a step up from the current practice of property development.

Construction site

Rawabi visitors centre 

Model

Model 

Model building

Model mosque

Model

Despite the novelty and perhaps progressiveness of the Rawabi project it still felt eery to me. Bizarrely, it was *too* planned. I think the development has good intentions, but I think there's a fine line between good planning and outright commodification of people's lives. I think Rawabi objectifies the meaning of neighbourhood by saying on its website "the city is comprised of 23 neighborhoods...Each neighborhood will have a unique name and a special identity". For me, neighbourhoods cannot be preset and certainly cannot be bounded. What's also annoying is the objectification of the meaning of culture via the The Rawabi Cultural Center, which is set to be the nexus of culture in Rawabi. Is this supposed to mean culture is produced and spit out of a building every now and then? Finally Rawabi is relatively far from Ramallah, the closest major city. This might be a problem for mobility in the area.

Video demonstration of Rawabi...Life as a commodity

Again I admit that I'm being hyper-critical, I do hope that the project is a success as there is a lot of money being invested in it. Maybe planned cities might turn out to be a good solution given the geography and politics in the region. But for me personally I don't see Rawabi as the best alternative for the current practice of property development, not least because I simply don't like how it looks. What's more, planned cities have not been a major success internationally, see for example Peterborough or Northampton. One things's for sure, I won't be putting a downpayment on an apartment in Rawabi! 

Wall post

Graffiti is easy to spot around Ramallah's pale stone walls. Until a few years ago, almost all the walls of Ramallah's city centre were covered with graffiti. A lot of it have now been erased with sand blasters. I don't particularly find graffiti aesthetically pleasing, but I think I can appreciate that it is interesting. I've read that urban graffiti is a great tool in understanding various segments of society in a city, revealing hidden knowledge of subcultures and transcribing the language of the oppressed. So what can Ramallah's graffiti (what's left of it) reveal?

I contacted my friend and emerging local artist Lydia Marouf to help me out with this mini investigation. Lydia just finished a six-month internship at Qattan, a local culture and education development foundation, where she worked as a photographer and website editor. Currently Lydia is working on starting her own handmade clothing line in Palestine.

We set out on a Saturday morning without any real plan of what we intend on photographing, but soon enough we began to see themes emerging whereby we could identify distinct categories. I decided to classify the graffiti in four categories: Political parties territorial marks, internal conflicts, anti-oppression, and avant-garde art (though the last two categories kind of overlap).

Territorial marks

We only came across two political party logos: Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Hamas seemed to be missing but then again Hamas isn't particularly popular in the West Bank. We also came across one armed wing organisation: Al-Quds Brigades.

PFLP (bottom right)                                             Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

Fatah                                                                        Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

Fatah                                                                       Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

Al-Quds Brigades                                                Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

Internal conflict

There were a lot of anti-government and anti-Abbas slurs across the city centre. The graffiti weren't authored, but I imagine that some would have come from the PFLP. The PFLP is known to oppose negotiations with Israel on the basis that it objectifies a two-state solution. Perhaps some graffiti could have also come from unaffiliated citizens who are, like the PFLP, frustrated with the Abbas-led Fatah government in the West Bank.

Homoeroticism?                                                    Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

The graffiti in the picture above really confused us. It seems as though the artist is using homosexuality as a means to degrade Mahmoud Abbas (left) who appears to be kissing an unknown man (as far as we know). Or perhaps the artist is using homoeroticism to allude to some ulterior political cause, but what?!

"Government of shame"                                        Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

"No to the negotiations (with Israel)"                 Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

"The nation wants Abbas ousted"                        Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

"Bring down Oslo"                                                  Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

The writing in red is referring to the 1993 and perhaps 1995 Oslo accords. Oslo is considered shameful by a faction of Palestinians as the accord (signed by the PLO) officially recognises the state of Israel.

   Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

Some of the graffiti also reflected internal social struggles. We weren't sure what the graffiti above was supposed to refer to, but I think it might be criticising Palestinian police brutality. However I'm not really aware of any extreme cases of police aggression in the West Bank.

"The revolution is female" (in black)                  Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

This one is my favourite; the revolution is female. It's no secret that most Palestinian resistance movements are male-oriented, this tends to marginalise women who feel equally as strong about the Palestinian cause as men do.

Anti-oppression

I like this category because it unites all Palestinian people regardless of their political affiliation. Fatah, the PFLP and other groups and individuals are all fighting against the same act of oppression.

Grassroots revolution                                             Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

   Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

Hunger strike                                                Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

The man in the picture above is a reference to the hunger strikes that Palestinian prisoners undertake. The bearded man can be seen on several walls around the city centre.

   Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

"NObama"                                                               Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

Palestinians were led to think that the election of Obama in 2008 would offer something better for politics in the region. However it wasn't long before the U.S president was regarded as "the same as the rest of them", as Obama continues to pressure Palestine to recognise Israel as a legitimate Jewish state. Having said that, I'm not sure if McCain or Romney would have been better for us.

   Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

The picture above shows a palestinian man wearing a swimming ring standing in a bucket with the label (Ramallah beach). Satire like this is often used in Palestinian graffiti to criticise and condemn oppression.


Avant-Garde art

Some of the graffiti we came across seemed to veer away from politics. I can't really provide commentary on some of the pictures because I literally don't know what they are referring to, but I suppose they don't really have to mean anything!

   Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

   Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

   Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

"These vagabond shoes"                                       Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

The boots in the two pictures above are recurrent across Ramallah's city centre.

   Photo credit: Lydia Marouf 

xoxo                                                               Photo credit: Lydia Marouf

I like the last picture above because it's light-hearted (no pun intended). Maybe if everyone drew hearts on their walls the world wouldn't be such a bad place.

I'm sure there's a lot more graffiti to be discovered in Ramallah, although i'm satisfied with what we saw and what was revealed. Please leave comments below if you have suggestions on what some of the graffiti might mean!

Solomon's Pools Bethlehem

Last Saturday me and my parents spent a night in the historic city of Bethlehem. We stayed at the Jacir Palace hotel, a building constructed by a wealthy merchant in 1910, Suleiman Jacer. It's a pretty interesting site, apparently it was used by both the British and Israelis for military purposes, such is luxurious modern warfare. Now it's been transformed into a hotel after being acquired by Intercontinental.

Jacir Palace 

Jacir Palace

I haven't been to Bethlehem for about 8-9 years, and since then a lot has changed. The separation wall stands scenically less than 200 feet from Jacir Palace, wrapping itself around the historic city, almost as if Asclepius himself has wielded this snake-like feature. I was literally stunned, we don't really see the wall in Ramallah, unless you drive towards the outskirts of the city.

Separation wall

Separation wall

Our main aim was to check out my dad's work in Bethlehem. He's currently the chair of the Solomon's Pools Company. Unless you've studied archaeology or have an avid interest in ancient pools, you've probably never heard of Solomon's Pools. The site has three historic pools constructed around 2 BCE (Before Common Era is a politically correct term for Before Christ) during the reign of King Herod, and was used to store and supply water to the area. The Solomon's Pools Company is essentially a private sector venture with multiple investors to transform this historic site into a tourist destination.

Solomon's Pools before development

In Europe/America something like the Solomon's Pools development might be referred to as a flagship project/design, usually as part of a wider urban regeneration plan. The Guggenheim museum in Bilbao is probably a close example I can think of, although it's a site in itself, the museum was only part of a project to regenerate the waterfront in Bilbao and create a knock-on effect for economic development. The Solomon's Pools development is also part of a wider urban regeneration project, called the Bethlehem Development Initiative (BDI) (http://www.bethlehemdevelopment.org/about-us26).

Guggenheim museum

Solomon's Pools development

To support the BDI, a group of Palestinian philanthropists decided to set up a non-governmental organisation called The Bethlehem Development Foundation. All decisions and plans are derived from extensive research carried out by this NGO. Some may argue that flagship projects often involve the commodification of grass-root culture/heritage for unfair profit making, producing something that is not universally accessible or liked. The Solomon's Pools development does not however feel like such a project. The owners do not aim to make large profits out of it, only enough to sustain and improve it. Said Khoury, a Palestinian-born billionaire in the top 1000 richest people in the world, is the biggest stakeholder in this whole initiative. It would be silly to suggest that Said is in it for the money, you only have to walk around Bethlehem/Jerusalem/Ramallah and count the number of mosques/churches/buildings donated by Mr. Khoury.

BDI board of directors

Driving around Bethlehem feels a bit cramped, at one point we couldn't even pass through a road because it was filled with pedestrians (sidewalks are a taboo in Palestine). Apart from the Church of Nativity square, there was no other open space area like a park or fountain etc., the 'city centre' seemed to extend in an odd linear fashion. If you're a tourist you might not mind this feeling, as you're interested in seeing the churches or just looking at the old buildings etc. But if you're a resident in Bethlehem, these problems would probably irk you.

Cramped city centre

There's always an emphasis on "place" when flagships are considered, and this one is no different. Clearly the BDI have considered the issue of place-making when they were designing this development, and the challenges the city faces. In a way, the Solomon's Pools development feels like a breathe of fresh air for the residents of Bethlehem. It's offering an alternative open space for people. The multi-use development seems to be absorbing aspects of the Bethlehem culture, evident in the different shops/cafes/restaurants opening, trying to create a meaning for "place".

The site also didn't feel exclusively like a tourist destination. The Ramadan festival going on this month was filled with families and young people from Bethlehem who literally came to hang out, without the need to spend money. If you like walking around, there's the Sultan's Bazaar, an arabic style open-air market experience. Then there's Kani Mani restaurant, a renovated Ottoman mini castle serving arabic dishes. There's also a museum showcasing different chapters of Palestinian history. Finally, there's a function area where various performances can take place.

Sultan Bazaar

Function area

Murad Museum

Kani Mani restaurant

Next week, Palestinian superstar Mohammed Assaf will be performing at Solomon's Pool in front of thousands.

The BDI feels exactly like the kind of improvisation needed by Bethlehem when local government is plagued by lack of funding and inefficient management (often the result of Israeli pressures and restrictions). If executed well, I think the Bethlehem Development Initiative, backed by its flagship Solomon's Pools development, could be Palestine's first successful comprehensive urban regeneration project.