Rawabi

Today was the most hopeful day I’ve had on this journey. We visited al-Haram ash-Sharif (the Temple Mount) this morning (pictures below), and this afternoon we visited the offices of Massar International, the real-estate company breaking ground – literally and figuratively – on Rawabi, the first planned Palestinian city.

Bashar Masri is the charismatic founder of Massar International, which, in conjunction with Qatari Government-owned Qatari Diar, are the investors backing the work of Masri’s Bayti Real Estate Investment Company. His story is remarkable. Born and raised in Nablus in the West Bank, he lived in Washington D.C. for well over a decade and became a U.S. citizen in 1987. He founded Massar International, a small private sector development company, in 1994, and moved back to the West Bank. After working on small development projects in Palestine, he realized that to compete globally, the company needed to upgrade. By September 2000, the company was hiring dozens of employees, and owned a brokerage company, a technology company, an advertising company, and a newspaper publishing company. However, also in fall 2000, the first Intifada broke out. With increased security forces of the IDF placing West Bank residents under curfew for four months out of the next year and a half, and increasing difficulties with mobility and a complete halt to development projects, Massar International had to think creatively, or go bankrupt. Mr. Masri decided to diversify and invest in real estate. Bayti Real Estate Investment Company was born and operations started in 2004. Mr. Masri began projects in Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, and Serbia.

“Real estate was promising,” he said. His company realized that there was a significant population of middle and low-income families living throughout the Middle East who don’t own homes, “and there is no good reason why they don’t,” he said. With six years of work in Morocco, Bayti homes sold over 12,000 apartments, growing their initial investment of 1.2 million euro into a 300 million euro enterprise. “Bayti homes have a great reputation. And we made such a profit on the homes in Morocco, within three years we were renovating and updating the homes… When you say ‘Bayti Homes’ in Morocco, they have a great reputation, and a great resale value,” he said.

He continued, “So, we said, ‘If we can be successful in other countries, why not elsewhere? Why not attempt to do this in Palestine?” 2005 was a great financial year for most of the countries in the Middle East, and momentum started building for Mr. Masri and the managers and employees of Bayti Homes and Massar International in Ramallah. In 2007, the idea of Rawabi, the first planned Palestinian city, was born. From the Winter 2010 Newsletters to investors in the Rawabi project:

“Rawabi is being developed by the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company, jointly owned by Qatari Government-owned Qatari Diar and Ramallah-based Massar International- two companies with unsurpassed real estate development experience and extensive knowledge of regional and international markets.

Rawabi will be built as a modern, high-tech city with gleaming mid-rise buildings, green parks and shopping areas. It will include fully developed infrastructure, a business district and commercial center, private and public schools, mosques and a church, public parks, a hotel and convention center, a cinema, a library and a municipal complex. Primary and secondary health care facilities, a police station and a fire station will be key features of the city, ensuring a safe, comfortable and healthy environment. The infrastructure and public facilities will benefit not only Rawabi but also the nine neighboring towns and villages.

Rawabi will provide more than 5,000 affordable housing units with nine different floor-plans to choose from, spread across 23 neighborhoods. Rawabi will initially be home to 25,000 residents, with additional residential and commercial unis slated for subsequent construction phases that will ultimately serve a city with a population of 40,000.”

The Rawabi project has already begun, and it is awe-inspiring. We were driven to the site today to overlook the work being done in the first phase. The mountain is being carved into a contour suitable for building, with the crushed aggregate stone being saved as building material. Three different Palestinian private contractors are busy on the project, causing a significant snowball effect in the Palestinian economy. Banks are approving the contractors’ application for business loans, and the contractors are purchasing new, state-of-the-art equipment to get the job done well and on schedule. The hundreds of workers on site are stimulating the economies of the small surrounding towns and villages by eating in their restaurants and cafes, shopping in their stores and markets, and project managers sleeping in their hotels. With more and more construction workers joining the project every week, new business ventures are popping up in Ramallah and villages near the site to provide large quantities of boxed lunches for the workers. Over 1,000 qualified prospective residents have already been interviewed by Bayti homes and are registered to purchase the first units, which are scheduled to be completed in the next three years.

“We are targeting young professionals, young families who want a safe place to raise their families… a clean, well-planned city that provides jobs… This project is growing the Palestinian economy,” said Amir Dajani, project planner and manager.

The cooperation that has gone into the Rawabi project and the support it is enjoying are unparalleled. Just last Thursday, Tony Blair was on site to learn about the project and see its progress. The newsletter reports, “Bayti holds regular meetings and briefings with Palestinian community and business leaders interested in Rawabi, to provide updates on the project and to gain feedback from the attendees. Recently, Bayti conducted briefings for community leaders on the progress of the Rawabi project. During the meetings, Bayti received valuable insights from the participants, whose suggestions will be incorporated into future development plans. Due to this level of community interest and the fruitfulness of such meetings, Bayti plans to continue to hold such briefings and involve Palestinian business and community leaders in the city’s development.” The notable dignitaries who have visited and support Rawabi include Daniel Rubinstein, U.S Consul General; David Harden, Senior Advisor to U.S. Envoy Senator George Mitchell; Senator John Kerry; board members of the Middle East Investment Initiative; Howard Sumka, USAID Mission Director; and Archbishop Theodosios, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, among others.

It was humbling to realize that I was receiving the same tour that these very important and very influential leaders had received. I was dumbfounded, actually.

I was most moved by the initiative to make Rawabi an environmentally sustainable green space. The Jewish National Fund has for decades received donations from around the world for the forestation of Israel. Now, it is possible to buy a tree that will be planted in Rawabi. I highly encourage you to do so. So far, 10,000 trees have been planted through the GROW for a Greener Palestine program. Visit http://www.rawabi.ps/ to purchase a tree and help forest Palestine.

One more “hallelujah” about the Rawabi project: this project will not only be the first planned Palestinian city, but it is also “the first time in Palestinian history that structured long-term mortgages will be available to target segments of the Palestinian population, such as future Rawabi homeowners (through programs such as Amal [an affordable mortgage and loan company] and those offered through local banks).”

Some of the remaining headlines and taglines of the articles in this newsletter:

· “A Model for Future Palestinian City Developments”

· “A City of Firsts in Palestine: Offering a Better Quality of Life”

· “A Pioneering City, Home to Innovation”

· “10,000 Trees Planted Under the GROW for a Greener Palestine Program”

· “Rawabi to Spur Economic Growth”

· “Mortgage Finance Programs: A Path to Home Ownership”

· “Adhering to Better International Standards and Practices”

It is stunning that the private sector is leading the way in the development of the infrastructure for the birth of a new Palestinian state. After so many failings and so much corruption within the Palestinian Authority under Arafat, the rise of Hamas and brutal and violent clashes with Fatah, the building of the wall to put an end to terrorist attacks originating in the West Bank, and the blockade of Gaza to prevent the entry of weapons in the strip and reaching the hands of Hamas militants –

this is a success story to hold on to. This is the building up of a new generation of Palestinian hope, originating from strong, sound leadership within Palestine’s private sector.

I had a moment for a conversation with Amir Dajani, the project manager, today when we were looking at the construction site. I asked, “Do you think that with your initiative, with you leading the way, that other private sector actors will join in building up Palestine, and that the public sector will follow your lead, too?”

“Oh, definitely,” he said. “We’re paving the way.”

Indeed they are.

If you support the Palestinian cause – you MUST educate yourself about Rawabi. And, you must realize the drastic difference between the past Palestinian modus operandi and the new transparent pioneering vision of Massar International and Bayti Real Estate Investment.

They are paving the way for a transparent, accountable, organized, and modern Palestinian state.