Rawabi

Rawabi (Arabic: روابي, meaning "The Hills") is the first planned city built for and by Palestinians in the West Bank, and is hailed as a "flagship Palestinian enterprise." Rawabi is located near Birzeit and Ramallah. The master plan envisages a high tech city with 6,000 housing units, housing a population of between 25,000 and 40,000 people, spread across six neighborhoods.

Construction began in January 2010. By 2014, 650 family apartments housing an estimated 3,000 people had been completed and sold, but could not be occupied while negotiations over supplying the city with water stalled. The city remained without water for an extended period due to structural and institutional obstacles. Though Israeli authorities technically approved a water connection, Minister Silvan Shalom withheld implementation, citing the need for the Israeli–Palestinian Joint Water Committee (JWC) to reconvene. The JWC, established under the 1995 Oslo Accords, requires mutual approval for projects, a system that gives Israel de facto veto power over Palestinian water infrastructure. Construction of the pipeline itself was complicated by the fact that parts of its route cross Area C, which is under full Israeli military control. When the hookup was finally approved in early 2015, the initial allocation was limited to 300 cubic meters per day, enough for only a fraction of the city’s anticipated population.

Rawabi covers approximately 6.3 million m² and is being built in phases. The first phase includes around 5,000 housing units. Initially designed to accommodate roughly 25,000 residents, the full plan aims for a population of up to 40,000. As of the most recent report, 250 units have been sold and nearly 1,000 more are under construction.

Occupancy in Rawabi has been limited, with an estimated 2,500–3,000 residents as of 2024, below the projected population for the first phase. Several infrastructure components, including the main access road and parts of the water network, cross Area C of the West Bank, where Israeli control necessitates annual permits and delays full utility service to the city. Construction and infrastructure development have continued, but full occupancy has been constrained by limited water supply, road access, and overall permitting requirements.

The project has seen approximately $1.2 billion in investment. Infrastructure plans include 25 km of roads, water systems, sewage treatment, and green space irrigation.