It's easy to sympathize with Pope Francis I, who stopped for silent prayer at the wall separating Bethlehem from Jerusalem: Sometimes it seems as if divine intervention is the only option left for Israelis and Palestinians who want peace. But there's another spot the pope could have visited for a glimpse of optimism amid the deadlocked peace negotiations.
Just north of Ramallah, the planned Palestinian city of Rawabi is emerging from the side of a hill. Intended to house light industry, high-tech firms and as many as 30,000 residents, Rawabi is, strictly speaking, an impossibility under Israeli occupation and Palestinian Authority governance. Yet there it is, growing under the guidance of Palestinian businessman Bashar Masri, with funding from Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.
The idea behind Rawabi is deceptively simple. Israel has built plenty of master-planned cities — some, controversially, in the territories it conquered in 1967. Palestinian cities and towns, in contrast, have arisen organically from ancient agricultural towns and trading centers, or have been the impromptu byproduct of refugee camps melding into urban sprawl. Masri wanted to start from scratch and construct a new city designed for Palestinians.
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