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Home , Abu Dis, Area C (West Bank), Azzun, Hableh, Jayyous, Qalandia

Area A

Area B

Area C

Israeli Settlements

The Separation Wall, Implemented

The Separation Wall, Under Construction

Dead Sea

Jordan River

Natuar Reserv embodies : terraced hills with groves where shepherds wander with their flocks and Special issue ghazal feed on misty mornings; striking wadis where foxes and mountain goats roam; the dry, rolling desert hills and green oases of al-ghor, the valley Area C that is less and less accessible to ; the disappearing where Palestinians no longer feel welcome to swim. Area C comprises sixty-one percent of the and is crucial for a viable Palestinian State. Connecting Palestine’s cities and villages, 4 Sustainable Urban Development in feeding its citizens, containing a wealth of natural and economic resources, the : An Opportunity housing immeasurable heritage and archeological treasures, it is among the most Interrupted beautiful places in the world - but not under Palestinian control and thus, as of yet, 6 MDGs to SDGs as a viable resource mostly untapped. In Area C, check points and the Separation 10 Area C of the West Bank: Strategic Wall restrict movement and access, which impacts livelihoods and restrains the Importance and Development Prospects entire economy; here the denial of building permits and house demolitions are as much a part of daily life as the uprooting of olive groves and the prevention of 18 International Experts Call for Fundamental Area A farmers from cultivating their fields and orchards. But Area C is also where the Area B Changes in ’s Approach to Planning Area C Israeli Settlements creative mind of Palestinians has found ingenious ways of showing resilience and The Segregation Wall, Existing and Development in Area C The Segregation Wall, Under Construction Dead Sea developing strategies for survival and development and in this issue you can read 24 National Strategies for Area C Natuar Reserv about some of these. 30 Israel’s War of Construction Our thanks go to UN-Habitat and the UNDP, not only for initiating the idea of this 36 Ministry of Local Government special issue, but also for co-sponsoring it – and for the wealth of information Engagement in Area C they contributed. Further contributions by institutions, ranging from the Palestine 38 UN-Habitat’s Spatial Planning Investment Fund and the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government to the Applied Interventions in Area C of the West Bank Research Institute- (ARIJ), and by individual authors provide a wealth Cover: Map of the West Bank with Areas 44 The Political Economy of Area C of information: facts, figures, opinions, and anecdotes that are informative, A, B, and C as per the interim agreements entertaining, enraging, and inspiring. 50 Outline Planning in Area C: An Alternative between the PLO and Israel of 1993. Courtesy of GSE, Good Shepherds In these days of heightened tension and increased attention on Palestine, the Approach Engineering. information presented here gives relevant background to the current situation of 56 Archeological Heritage in Area C anger over restricted access, untapped potential, and thwarted opportunities that 64 Stories From the Field define Area C, the heart and soul of Palestine. 68 The Political Agency of Fallahin Architecture: Unravelling the Conflict of Susiya Telefax: +970/2 2-295 1262 Bettina Ezbidi 74 Placemaking in the West Bank in Area C [email protected] Editor 80 On the Edge www.thisweekinpalestine.com www.facebook.com/ 86 Jerusalem Suburbs: Lost and Forgotten? ThisWeekInPalestine 90 THE C-WORD This is a special issue of This Week in Palestine focusing on Area C 94 Maps Publisher: Sani P. Meo co-sponsored by the Human Settlements Programme Art Director: Taisir Masrieh (UN-Habitat), and the UNDP’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian Graphic Designers: People (UNDP/PAPP). Shehadeh Louis, Hassan Nasser Editor: Bettina Ezbidi TWIP Coordinator: Yara Alloush The views presented in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of neither the publisher nor the UN (except for those Advisory Board submitted by UNDP and UN-Habitat). Maps herein have Printed by: been prepared solely for the convenience of the reader; the Studio Alpha, Al-Ram, Jerusalem Dr. Mamdouh Aker Dr. Nabeel Kassis designations and presentation of material do not imply any Urologist Director of Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) expression of opinion of This Week in Palestine, its publisher, Maps: Courtesy of PalMap - GSE editor, or its advisory board as to the legal status of any Vera Baboun Sami Khader country, territory, city, or area, or the authorities thereof, or Distribution in the West Bank: Mayor of Director General of MA’AN Development Center as to the delimitation of boundaries or national affiliation. CityExpress Aref Hijjawi Nour Odeh Author and media expert CEO, Communications Consultancy 2 3 Sustainable Urban Development in the State of Palestine: An Opportunity Interrupted

Op-ed by UN-Habitat Executive Director, Dr. Joan Clos

Landscape view of the village of Imneizil, south of . Photo Courtesy of UN-Habitat.

phenomenon significantly interrupted enable Palestinians’ residential- and y visit to the State of Palestine its major challenges, such as ending by the occupation. Yet, there is no community-development needs to be comes at a crucial moment poverty and addressing the issue of development without urbanization, a met across the entirety of the State for global development. In climate change. At UN-Habitat, which M fact we have to acknowledge against of Palestine. For Gaza specifically, the coming weeks, world is the UN agency mandated to promote the long process of final political Israel must end the blockade to allow leaders will adopt the Post-2015 sustainable urbanization, we promote a settlement leading to two states living the cities to build back better through Universal Agenda that consists of new and more positive approach to urban side by side in peace and security. To innovation and participatory urban seventeen Sustainable Development issues. We strongly believe that effective be clear, the UN seeks a just resolution planning approaches. Goals and 169 targets that aim at urbanization is a choice, a human choice to issues including the demarcation ending poverty and improving the lives that is not achieved by chance but by Looking ahead, the UN system has of borders, Israeli settlements, the of the world’s population by 2030. One design and political will. The positive begun preparations for Habitat III, the UN status of Jerusalem, water and natural of these goals focuses on sustainable outcomes of urbanization depend largely Conference on Housing and Sustainable resources, the Gaza blockade, and cities and human settlements. Almost on the quality of that design. Urban Development that will take place , together with in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016. The all of the other goals are linked in one In the case of the State of Palestine, it affirmative actions to cease the new urban model that we are promoting way or another to urbanization. is clear that there are many challenges destruction of Palestinian property. as a basis for the conference addresses The new development agenda is a to harnessing urbanization as a positive UN-Habitat – as articulated through its all three dimensions of sustainable strong global commitment to achieving force for development. It is hard recent analysis on , Area development: the economic, social, and sustainable development. But what to see how urbanization can foster C, and Gaza and as echoed in the One environmental. Our primary objective does this new development agenda development in Palestine, where over UN Position Paper on Spatial Planning is to plan “for a better urban future,” mean for the State of Palestine? sixty percent of the West Bank, known in Area C – believes there are practical where cities and human settlements Globally, the majority of the world’s as Area C, is under a restrictive planning measures that can be taken to foster become inclusive, safe, resilient, and population is now urban. Looking at process that is discriminatory and sustainable urbanization for the State sustainable. Palestinians should not the State of Palestine, in the West Bank not in conformity with international of Palestine, which in turn can improve be excluded from this high endeavor. approximately seventy percent of the humanitarian and human rights law. Or the conditions for peace. Central to UN- Our unwavering commitment to the population live in urban areas, mostly in in Gaza, where recurrent conflict has Habitat’s perspective on urbanization is State of Palestine is to support it in Bethlehem Hebron, Jerusalem, , killed thousands of people, devastated that spatial and urban planning must be realizing the potential of sustainable and ; in Gaza, eighty percent the urban space, destroyed and used as a means for delivering human urbanization – today, tomorrow, and in of the population does. damaged thousands of homes, and rights, not denying them. Hence, the years to come. where reconstruction is proceeding But urbanization is not simply a UN-Habitat considers the approval too slowly. Or Jerusalem, where I see demographic phenomenon. It is a of the Master Plans that have been Dr. Joan Clos is the Executive Director one city divided by multiple growing broader force. When managed well, submitted by Palestinian communities of UN-Habitat, which is mandated to inequalities. urbanization is a driver for sustainable for Area C to be an imperative step promote socially and environmentally development, which can potentially help Urbanization, as a positive force for the implementation of an inclusive sustainable towns and cities with the the world to effectively tackle some of for development in Palestine, is a planning and zoning regime that will goal of providing adequate shelter for all. 4 5 MDGs to SDGs

Op-ed by Roberto Valent Special Representative of the Administrator UNDP’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People

View of the landscape near the village of Tuqu’, Bethlehem district. Photo courtesy of Ventura Formicone - @UNDP/PAPP.

cross the globe, world leaders have adopted the Yet despite this progress, the indignity of poverty has not new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) been ended for all, which is why the seventeen new Goals A that are essentially an agreed-upon vision to will continue the journey towards progress for everyone, a put people and the planet on a sustainable path journey which aims to go even farther: to focus the world by 2030. This will form the bedrock of a new development on ending poverty, hunger, and major health problems and agenda that can set the world on a course of action to end to break new ground by setting goals and targets regarding poverty, transform lives, and protect the planet. inequalities, economic growth, decent jobs, energy, climate The Goals spell out how we can and must work together change, peace and justice, and more. to promote dignity, equality, justice, shared prosperity, The government of the State of Palestine has made important and well-being for all – while protecting the environment. achievements in the pursuit of the Millennium Development I have learned from my work with the United Nations Goals (MDGs). However, in light of the occupation and the Development Programme (UNDP) that setting goals and challenges facing Palestinian development, the localization targets is effective: and we are the first generation that of the SDGs warrants particular attention to the Palestinian can end poverty and the last one that can avoid the worst context, especially in Area C of the West Bank and in East effects of climate change. Jerusalem. According to the 2014 Human Development Millions of people’s lives have improved due to concerted Report, the State of Palestine scored higher than the efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals that calculated average for the Arab-country region group in serve as the foundation for the next global development health and education, but it fell significantly below other agenda. Some MDG targets have already been met, i.e. Arab countries in the “decent standards of living” measure reducing poverty, increasing access to improved drinking of GNI (average of US$ 15,817 per capita). While notable water sources, improving the lives of slum dwellers, and progress has been made in education, two areas still require achieving gender parity in primary schools. special attention: preschool education and accessibility of education in general and in all regions. If these areas Over the past twenty years, the likelihood of a child dying are improved, if infrastructure for education is further before the age of five has been cut nearly in half; globally, developed, and additional progress is achieved in enrollment the maternal mortality rate dropped by nearly half; more rates, education targets will be met in the State of Palestine. people than ever before are receiving antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infection; more than six million deaths from malaria I believe, we will achieve substantial results by taking on were averted due to a substantial expansion of malaria together the many interconnected challenges we face. interventions. Enormous progress has been made, which Taking action to achieve the Global Goals and building shows the value of a unifying agenda underpinned by greater shared prosperity is in everybody’s best interest goals and targets. and provides enormous investment opportunities that will 6 7 United Nations Development Programme Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations. UNDP’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP) owes its origin to a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 December 1978, calling upon UNDP “to improve the economic and social A mural on one of the walls of the village of Bil’in. conditions of the Palestinian people”. Photo courtesy of Ventura Formicone - @UNDP/PAPP. In partnership with Palestinian institutions, civil society, communities and donors, UNDP’s goal is to empower the Palestinian People to establish a benefit all people and the entire planet. Success in this viable State that is able to realize the right to development for its people and new ambitious agenda for global action will be driven by support their socio-economic resilience. Since its establishment, UNDP/ leaders, governments, and people, especially at the local PAPP has delivered over USD 1.5 billion in development assistance to the level. The Goals should matter to all of us: we all have a Palestinian People, and generated over 3.5 million workdays. shared responsibility for our future. UNDP/PAPP places empowerment, resilience and sustainability at the By working united, shared problems can be overcome. centre of its operation and focuses on three priority areas: the , With new, interconnected Sustainable Development Goals East Jerusalem and Area C, where the needs are the greatest. UNDP/ that apply to all, we can go much further in order to end all PAPP focuses on democratic governance and the rule of law, economic empowerment and private sector development, environment and forms of poverty, ensure that no one is left behind, tackle management of natural resources, as well as public and social infrastructure. unsustainable practices, and chart a dignified future for all people in all countries. UNDP/PAPP’s support in the governance sector is aligned to Palestinian national priorities and focuses on the rule of law and access to justice, Therefore, the establishment of an environment conducive national unity and social cohesion, inclusion and participation, local towards supporting Palestinian resilience and the right to governance, and public administration reform to build strong and freedom, dignity, and self-determination will propel the accountable institutions. achievement of the SDGs in the State of Palestine. UNDP To reduce poverty, UNDP prioritizes support to the most vulnerable stands ready to support the State of Palestine as it develops communities and families through sustainable economic empowerment its plans for making the SDGs a reality – the Sustainable approaches that help people enhance their self-reliance and become gradually Development Goals matter to Palestinians, too! less reliant on aid. Efforts are made in the areas of promoting private sector productivity, employment schemes, and micro-entrepreneurship, social Roberto Valent is the Special Representative of the safety nets for the most vulnerable families, agricultural management, and Administrator for UNDP’s Programme of Assistance to basic infrastructure for improved service delivery. the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP). Prior to his current UNDP/PAPP’s environment and natural resources portfolio focuses position, Mr Valent was the UN Resident Coordinator on strengthening environmental and water governance, mobilizing and UNDP Resident Representative in El Salvador and environmental financing, improving access to environmental services Belize. From 2007-2010, Mr Valent was Deputy Special such as water supply and sanitation, solid waste management, and energy; Representative at UNDP/PAPP. From 2005-2007 he was mainstreaming environment and climate change, and developing the Deputy Country Director in the Democratic Republic of capacities of Palestinian State institutions in climate change adaptation Congo, and assigned as Deputy Resident Representative and mitigation. in Sudan from 2002-2005. Mr. Valent began his career with UNDP in 1995 in Albania. An Italian national, Mr Valent UNDP/PAPP also focuses on social, public and economic infrastructure holds a BA and a Master’s Degree in Political Sciences as well as early recovery and reconstruction to support the resilience of from Bologna University, Italy, followed by another Palestinian marginalized communities, especially in Area C, East Jerusalem Master’s Degree in International Relations from Sussex and the Gaza Strip. Interventions cover five key sectors; access to energy, University, United Kingdom. transportation, housing, education and health. 8 before the elections for the Palestinian Area C Council.4 The remaining three phases would involve the gradual redeployment of the West Bank: to “specified military locations” over The strategic importance and the period of eighteen months from economic significance of Area C Strategic Importance the inauguration of the Palestinian cannot be overstated. It is a natural Council, to take place at six-month location for large infrastructure intervals.5 These interim arrangements projects such as wastewater and Development were an integral part of the whole treatment plants, landfills, water peace process, to be concluded with pipelines, energy projects, Prospects a Permanent Status Agreement, and to and main roads as well as for lead to the implementation of Security industrial, tourism and agricultural Council Resolutions 242 and 338.6 projects. To facilitate the transfer of authority to the Palestinian side, the 1995 Mohammad Mustafa Interim Agreement divided the West Bank into three Areas – A, B, and

Photo from Palestine Image Bank. he peace process that began in the early 1990s T purportedly aimed at reaching a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace settlement through a permanent status agreement that would (among other things) end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory (that began in 1967) and result in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. As part of this peace process, a series of interim agreements were concluded between the PLO and Israel: the Declaration of Principles of 1993 called for a gradual transfer of power in the Occupied Palestinian Territory from Israel to the Palestinian side over a five-year period, with negotiations on permanent status issues to begin two years after an initial Israeli withdrawal from and Gaza.1 The Gaza- Jericho Agreement of 1994 called on Israel to withdraw from Gaza and Jericho within a certain period of time.2 The 1995 Interim Agreement contemplated four additional phases of Israeli “redeployments” in the West Bank:3 The first phase was to be an Israeli redeployment from “populated areas” of the West Bank, to be completed

10 11 C – and provided that the parties would have varying degrees of authority in each. It provided that Area C, “except for the issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations (Jerusalem, settlements, specified military locations), will be gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction”7 as part of the three-stage “further redeployments.”8 Notwithstanding the temporary administrative divisions, the interim agreements declared that the West Bank and Gaza Strip comprised a single territorial unit, whose integrity and status were to be preserved during the interim period,9 also providing for a safe passage to link the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.10 But the implementation of the first two phases of redeployment was delayed by Israel, and it failed to carry out the third and final phase of redeployment. Had Israel fulfilled its obligations under the interim agreements in carrying out all redeployments, approximately 92% of the West Bank area would have been under Palestinian control since 1997. Instead, Area A today comprises about 18% of the West Bank territory, which includes all Palestinian cities and most of the Palestinian population; Area B comprises approximately 21% of territory and encompasses small towns and villages in rural areas; while Area C covers 61% of the West Bank territory and is the only area that is contiguous, engulfing the fragmented islands of Areas A and B. Regarding functional jurisdiction under the terms of the interim agreements: In Area A, the Palestinian government has authority over civil affairs, internal security, and public order, while Israel retains responsibility over external security. In Area B, the Palestinian government exercises civil authority and maintains public order for Palestinians, while Israel retains overriding responsibility for security. In Area C, Israel retains jurisdiction with regards to security, public order, and on all issues related to territory, including planning and zoning, while the Palestinian side has personal jurisdiction over Palestinians and “functional jurisdiction” in matters “not related to territory,” excluding issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations (Jerusalem, settlements, and military locations). Notwithstanding the 1995 Interim Agreement’s division of the West Bank into areas A, B and C, Courtesy of OCHA.

12 13 Considering Area C’s development potential and the fact that it comprises the portion of the West Bank territory that is the largest in size, most fertile, and richest in resources, while taking into account that it is the only territorially contiguous area, it is clear that without Palestinian control over Area C and its development, there can be no viable Palestinian state - nor any prospect for a political settlement based on a two-state solution.

the status of all the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Area C, as well as of the Gaza Strip remains that of an occupied territory under and as stipulated by the International Court of Justice in its Wall Advisory Opinion.11 The interim agreements do not and were never intended to constitute an acknowledgement of Israel’s claims to sovereignty within any part of the West Bank, whether Area C or otherwise. On the contrary, the interim agreements were intended to formalize a transition from total Israeli control to partial Palestinian control within a period of five years, to be followed by a Permanent Status Agreement that would end Israeli occupation and result in the establishment of a fully independent Palestine state. As an occupying power, Israel’s powers are only temporary, administrative, and limited in scope, without conferring any sovereign title.12 Sovereignty remains vested in the Palestinian people and the Palestinian state. Furthermore, Israel is obliged to act only for the benefit of the Palestinian population and is prohibited from acting to advance in the occupied territory its own territorial or economic interests, which includes the establishment of settlements and the transferring of its civilian population into the occupied territory.13 Israeli policies and practices in Area C – as well documented by UN agencies, international organizations, and civil society – aim to limit Palestinian access and prohibit development while facilitating illegal settlements and Israel’s exploitation of this area. These practices are in clear violation of international law and of the interim agreements under which Area C should have long been transferred to Palestinian control. Today, Area C is home to approximately 520 Palestinian communities, 230 of which are entirely located in Area C. The majority of these communities (70%) are not connected to basic infrastructure such as water networks. Palestinian construction is allowed only within the boundaries of Israeli-approved plans that cover less than 1% of Area C. Conversely, land set aside for illegal Israeli settlements and military locations covers 70% of Area Courtesy of OCHA. C (44% of the West Bank). In addition, 23% of the West 14 15 Photo from Palestine Image Bank.

Bank is designated as ‘fire zones’ or from removing restrictions on two new town in the northern It will undoubtedly revitalize the ‘nature reserves’ by the Israeli military. sectors, agriculture and Dead Sea area to include residential units, an Palestinian economy, create sustained Similar to lands within the expansive mineral exploitation, with irrigation of area for commerce and business, and economic growth led by the private boundaries of settlements and military unexploited land yielding a potential $ health care and recreational facilities; sector, and generate thousands of new locations, these lands are considered 704 million per year, and exploitation of a new town between Ramallah and employment opportunities, all within off-limits for Palestinian access and Dead Sea minerals yielding $918 million Jericho comprised of four thousand a developmental approach that goes development. Today, there are 224 per year. The study has also concluded housing units; a new neighbourhood beyond the humanitarian imperative and illegal Israeli settlements, including over that the multiplier effect across the in Hebron in the area of Jabel Johar; accounts for the strategic important of 100 so-called “outposts”, scattered economy could add a total benefit of and the Moon City north of Jericho Area C to a viable Palestinian economy across the West Bank, the majority of $3.4 billion per year and would lead comprised of residential housing units and statehood. which are in Area C. to significant improvements in the and recreational facilities. A case in point for the impact of government’s fiscal situation by adding Against the backdrop of a sharp Dr. Mohammad Mustafa is Chairman Israeli restrictions on Area C is the $800 million in tax revenues per annum. decline in donor aid, a protracted of the Palestine Investment Fund and is leading PIF in delivering its strategic Jordan Valley. In 1967, approximately The Palestinian government has fiscal crisis, rising unemployment and investment mandate in key sectors of 250,000 Palestinians lived in the Jordan adopted a Strategic National Framework poverty rates, as well as intensified the Palestinian economy. Previously, Valley. In recent years, this number for development interventions in Area activity in Area C, the he has served the PA as Deputy Prime has dropped to 70,000, of which C.15 This framework outlines the implementation of these and similar Minister of Palestine and as Minister 70% are concentrated in the Jericho national priorities and interventions projects in Area C will advance the of National Economy and held a senior area, while approximately 91.5% of in Area C across multiple sectors, physical and economic foundations position in the World Bank on private the Jordan Valley is considered off- spanning governance, social sectors, of an independent Palestinian state. sector and infrastructure development. limits for Palestinians. Despite its vast infrastructure, the economy, and the agricultural potential, the Jordan Valley importance of consolidating the efforts 1 is the governorate least cultivated by of all stakeholders in developing Area Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, (September 13, 1993), [DoP], Art. V(1) Palestinians due to Israeli restrictions. and (2). C as part and parcel of the territory of 2 Only 4.7% of the land in the Jordan Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area, (4 May 1994). the State of Palestine. Building on this 3 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, (September 28, 1995), [1995 Valley is cultivated, compared to an government strategy on Area C, the Interim Agreement]. average of 25% in other governorates. Palestine Investment Fund (PIF), the 4 1995 Interim Agreement, Art. X(1); Art. XI(2)(a); Art. XVII(8); and Annex I, Art. 1(1). A World Bank report published in 2013 on investment arm of the State of Palestine, 5 1995 Interim Agreement, Art. X(2); Art. XI(2)(d); Art. XVII(8); Annex I, Art. I(9); and Annex I, Appendix I, para. B. Area C assessed the economic potential has developed a portfolio of projects 6 DoP, Art. I. of the area to the Palestinian economy.14 intended for Area C. These include the 7 1995 Interim Agreement, Art. XI(3)(c). The report evaluated the effect of Israeli development of agricultural production, 8 1995 Interim Agreement, Art. XIII(2)(b)(8). restrictions on Palestinian planning, and of food processing and packaging 9 DoP, Article IV; Gaza-Jericho Agreement, Article XXIII, Clauses 6-7; 1995 Interim Agreement, Article XI, Clause 1, and Article XXXI, Clause 8. zoning, and development of Area C plants in the areas of and Sanur; 10 1995 Interim Agreement, Annex I, Article X. in key economic sectors: Dead Sea the development of solar farm projects 11 “The territories situated between the and the former eastern boundary of Palestine under the Mandate minerals exploitation, cosmetics, stone in ten locations in Area C found suitable were occupied by Israel in 1967 during the armed conflict between Israel and Jordan. Under customary mining and quarrying, construction, for that purpose; the development of international law, these were therefore occupied territories in which Israel had the status of occupying Power. tourism, and telecommunications. The the shores of the Dead Sea, including Subsequent events in these territories, [including the conclusion of the Interim Agreements], have done nothing conclusions were unequivocal: The mineral production and tourism to alter this situation. All these territories (including East Jerusalem) remain occupied territories and Israel has direct impact of removing restrictions facilities; residential housing projects continued to have the status of occupying power.” ICJ Advisory Opinion, par. 77. 12 1907 Hague Convention, Article IV: Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, (October 18, 1907). on the above sectors could generate in the areas of Qalqilia and , both 13 1949 Geneva Convention, Article IV: Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. an additional output of $ 2.2 billion in Area C, creating contiguity between 14 World Bank Report: Area C and the Future of the Palestinian Economy, (October 2, 2013). Areas A and B; a waste recycling per annum – an amount equivalent to 15 State of Palestine: Ministry of Planning and Administrative Development, National Development Plan: 23% of the Palestinian GDP in 2011. site in ; a waste burial and State Building to Sovereignty, 2014-1016, available at http://www.mopad.pna.ps/?option=com_ Most of this output could be derived recycling site west of ; a content&view=article&id=458&Itemid=142&hideNav=true. 16 17 The Board also comments on the International Experts marked discrepancy between the lack of approval of these Palestinian The way in which the Israeli Civil Call for Fundamental plans and the expeditious process by Administration delivers planning which the ICA approves plans for new in Area C amounts to a denial Changes in Israel’s Israeli settlements in Area C. These of administrative justice to the Israeli settlements are illegal under Palestinian people. international law. However, some Approach to Planning 340,000 Israeli settlers now live in approximately 135 Israeli settlements, and there are another one hundred and Development in settlement “outposts” in Area C (not including East Jerusalem). The IAB • enable people to challenge decisions Area C notes that “The Israeli settlements get and seek redress using procedures preferential access to water resources, that are independent, open, and and their residents are offered appropriate for the matter involved; financial incentives to locate there by Cliff Hague • keep people fully informed the Israeli government (e.g. housing and empower them to resolve subsidies). While outposts are typically their problems as quickly and ‘unauthorised development’ in terms comprehensively as possible; of statutory plans, they rarely face • lead to well-reasoned, lawful, and he Israeli Civil Administration’s (ICA) practice of planning in Area C of the demolition of their illegal structures.” occupied West Bank has been strongly criticised by leading professional timely outcomes; T planners from abroad. A report by a five-strong International Advisory • be coherent and consistent; Board (IAB) of experienced planners from the UK, Germany, South Denial of Administrative Justice Africa, and Canada calls for an end to demolitions and for plans for Palestinian The IAB report is very critical of how • work proportionately and efficiently; communities in Area C to be approved.1 the ICA delivers planning in Area C, • adopt the highest standards The Board was invited by UN-Habitat to look at the current impasse in planning in stating that it amounts to a denial of of behaviour, seek to learn Area C. Under the , the ICA is (temporarily) the agency with ultimate administrative justice. The concept from experience, and improve 2 responsibility for regional and local planning in Area C. However, only three plans requires that administrative systems continuously. have been approved for Palestinian communities, and many others have been operated by states safeguard the rights The report points to a number of ways in stalled for years. Without ICA-approved local-scale plans for Palestinian villages, and interests of individuals affected by which planning in Area C currently falls development is unauthorised and enforcement action is taken: properties are those systems, have fair processes, short on these criteria. For example, demolished and planned developments funded by donor agencies are put on and deliver just outcomes. Good there is a lack of transparency in the hold. and herder communities are particularly at risk because of their administrative justice requires states to: use of criteria by which plans are semi-nomadic way of life. • make users and their needs central, evaluated by the ICA. The criteria are The ICA says that the poor technical quality of the Palestinian plans is the reason treating them with fairness and not published on the web in , for the delays and rejections of plans. However, after looking at a sample of ten respect at all times; but rather are explained verbally at such plans and visiting a number of the affected villages, IAB has come to the view that the plans are adequate and should be approved. This would enable villagers to undertake lawful development of their land and properties and remove the fear Landscape in Imneizel Village near , Hebron. of demolition. The report comments on the very high rate of demolitions in Area C, typically around 500 a year. The international experts make comparisons with the much more limited use of demolition in their own countries, where such action is seen as a “last resort”. Where unauthorised development takes place, it is usually resolved through negotiation - or may be seen as not so serious as to require demolition. The IAB report says “It is simply not credible that each year in Area C, in what are largely poor and marginalised village communities, there are over 500 unauthorised Palestinian developments that have such a deleterious impact that the only remedy has to be demolition, often entailing the eviction of families from their homes and/ or severely damaging livelihoods.”

18 19 system operated by the ICA acts as a barrier to economic opportunity and locks people into poverty. Planning in Area C should identify an adequate land supply to meet The IAB was surprised that regional- development needs over a five scale plans drawn up a lifetime ago to ten year period and take a under the British Mandate are still proactive approach towards used and carry statutory power. infrastructure and connectivity. Thinking about regional development Plans need to identify and promote has changed greatly since the 1940s, development opportunities. when the focus was almost exclusively on urban containment and restriction of development outside villages. Planning in Area C is preventing the create synergies between investments proper development of the towns in in different sectors, to connect International Advisory Board Listening to the Village Leaders in Ras Tira and Daba, North of Qalqilyia, February 2015. Areas A and B. Denied adjacent land urban and rural areas into functional on which to expand, these towns economic units, to build consensus the first meeting between the ICA and work in Israel or in Israeli settlements are forced to cram new development amongst stakeholders, and to fashion the planning consultants preparing – for these people transport matters inside their boundaries at ever higher a development path that is respectful plans. Similarly, the customary lack to access employment opportunities. densities. The functional city-region is of local needs and cultures.” Such an of written comment and advice from Rather than a restrictive land-use now recognised as an important scale approach “has a key role to play in the ICA following meetings about the planning approach, Area C needs a at which development needs to be realising the ambitions of the Palestinian preparation of plans is bad practice, as form of planning that aims to drive integrated to secure benefits for both people, the Palestinian Authority, the is the fact that the process for vetting rural development to lift people out of urban centres and their hinterlands. World Bank, and donor agencies.” and objection to plans is cumbersome poverty and aid dependency. The IAB report suggests that the West Bank needs city-region plans. Similarly, and involves different committees. All The form and operation of the planning 18 Past Presidents of Royal this contributes to excessive delays the report backs the idea of a National system is fundamentally entwined with Spatial Strategy, which the Palestinian Town Planning Institute Express in the determination of plans. The IAB the conflicts over land in the West further comments that “In the context Authority is working on, to set a Concern Bank. At the local level, it affects the strategic development framework to of occupation, the right of settlers to rights of every Palestinian household Following the publication of the IAB object to plans for Palestinian villages guide investment by the private sector, report, eighteen Past Presidents of in Area C. However, at a more strategic donor agencies, and local government. is inappropriate, as is the lack of a level, planning is currently an obstacle the UK-based Royal Town Planning Palestinian voice in decisions about to the economic development of the The planners on the IAB put forward Institute signed a letter in their personal plans in Area C.” a vision for how planning should capacities, expressing concern at the West Bank. Area C is fundamental to 3 the infrastructure and connectivity be done that is very different from way planning is being done in Area C. Why Planning Matters of the West Bank, particularly for the negative and restrictive practice This letter, sent to the RTPI’s magazine of the ICA. The IAB says urban and The Planner, read: Currently, about a third of Area C telecommunications, water, and transport. By preventing development regional planning “can be the means residents rely on farming and herding to coordinate investments spatially, to for their livelihoods. These are activities of such networks to serve Palestinian for which access to land and to water homes and businesses, the planning is essential. A quarter of residents

Israeli Settlement Near Ras Tira Village in . 20 21 “We write to draw attention to the recent be reconstituted and given powers to report to UN-Habitat on planning in decide on local outline plans and to the West Bank (http://unhabitat.org/ issue building permits. planning-needs-to-change-in-the- In Area C, planning needs to become occupied-west-bank-un-habitat/). – as it is elsewhere nowadays – an The report gives the findings of enabling process rather than a purely an International Advisory Board of restrictive mechanism. This means experienced planners, led by RTPI UN-Habitat is the United Nations programme working towards ensuring an adequate land supply to a better urban future. Its mission is to promote socially and Past President Cliff Hague. It explains meet development needs over a five environmentally sustainable villages, towns, and cities and how planning is being used to block to ten-year period, and a proactive development and impede much- approach towards infrastructure and the achievement of adequate shelter for all. Cities are facing needed infrastructure investment in connectivity. Plans need to identify and unprecedented demographic, environmental, economic, social, Palestinian villages, while facilitating promote development opportunities. and spatial challenges. There has been a phenomenal shift towards the construction of Israeli settlements urbanization, with six out of every ten people in the world which are illegal under international The international community should continue to support the process of expected to reside in urban areas by 2030. In the State of Palestine, law. As experienced planners, we are approximately seventy percent of the West Bank population live in concerned at planning being used in making local plans with the aim of urban areas – mostly in Bethlehem, Hebron, Jerusalem, Nablus, and this discriminatory way. We assert the getting comprehensive coverage in need for planning practices to be fair, Area C. As suggested above, approval Ramallah – while in Gaza, eighty percent of the population does. inclusive and enabling, and to be used of plans should rest with the re- In the absence of effective urban planning, the consequences of this as a means of building trust within and established Local Planning Councils. rapid urbanization will be dramatic. In many places around the world between communities.” The plans should be reviewed every the effects can already be felt: lack of proper housing and growth of five years. However, to expedite the slums, inadequate and out-dated infrastructure – be it roads, public plan preparation and adoption process Use Planning to Deliver Human space, public transport, water, sanitation, or electricity – escalating and to integrate development spatially, poverty and unemployment, safety and crime problems, pollution Rights plans should be prepared for areas and health issues, as well as poorly managed natural or man-made based on clusters of villages and the The fact that Israel has the responsibility disasters and other catastrophes due to the effects of climate change. for planning in Area C does not mean space between them. that it has to operate the planning Such reforms could create the basis Mindsets, policies, and approaches towards urbanization need to system in the way in which it is for a planning system based on human change in order for the growth of cities and urban areas to be turned currently conducting it. Community rights. They could dramatically improve into opportunities that will leave nobody behind. UN-Habitat is at involvement is a central feature of development opportunities not just in the helm of that change, supporting governments in over seventy most planning systems across the Area C, but in the West Bank as a whole. countries to harness the power of urbanization for the benefit of world. Decisions are taken locally, citizens. Mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1978 to address except where developments have Cliff Hague is Emeritus Professor of the issues of urban growth, it is a knowledgeable institution on urban impacts on a wider scale. The effective Planning and Spatial Development development processes and understands the aspirations of cities exclusion of Palestinians living in Area at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, and a Past President of the and their residents. For close to forty years, UN-Habitat has been C from decisions about small-scale Royal Town Planning Institute and of working throughout the world, focusing on building a brighter future developments that have only local the Commonwealth Association of for villages, towns, and cities of all sizes. Because of these four effects is unnecessary and inequitable. Planners. He chaired the International decades of extensive experience, from the highest levels of policy to A system of Local Planning Councils, Advisory Group that reported on a range of specific technical issues, UN-Habitat has gained a unique planning in Area C. based on clusters of villages, should and universally acknowledged expertise in all things urban. This has placed UN-Habitat in the best position to provide answers and achievable solutions to the current challenges faced by our cities. 1 UN-Habitat, (2015), Spatial Planning in Area C of the Israeli Occupied West Bank of the Palestinian Territory: UN-Habitat is capitalizing on its experience and position to work Report of an International Advisory Board, available at http://unhabitat.org/spatial-planning-in-area-c-of-the- with partners in order to formulate the urban vision of tomorrow. It israeli-occupied-west-bank-of-the-palestinian-territory/. 2 Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council, (2010), Principles for Administrative Justice, available at http:// works to ensure that cities become inclusive and affordable drivers ajtc.justice.gov.uk/docs/principles_web.pdf. of economic growth and social development. Since 2003, UN- 3 Cliff Hague, (2015), 18 RTPI Past Presidents sign letter on planning in Palestine, Cliff Hague: Urbanization and Habitat has supported Palestinians in their ambitions for a better Planning, available at http://www.cliffhague.com/index.php/component/k2/item/200-18-rtpi-past-presidents- urban future. sign-letter-on-planning-in-palestine

22 important for a viable, sovereign, and acquire and retain large areas of arable economically stable Palestinian state. lands and important water networks. These gains were further cemented National through the peace process, whereby the Current Barriers and Restraints Oslo Agreements helped increase the Towards the Development of Area C fragmentation of The Israeli-imposed occupation and the via the development of Areas A, B, and Strategies heightened military protocol for Area C C. While at the time of the agreements are creating systematic gaps in both it was mutually agreed that Israel would governance and development of Area slowly transfer powers back to the C. Since 1967, Israel has occupied the Palestinians, to date Israel maintains for Area C West Bank and enforced special military control of the Area C territories and orders, particularly in the Jordan Valley their key resources. These conditions area. These military orders have proven create systematic constrains, including; instrumental in mitigating Palestinian (i) Denying Palestinians Access to Land Courtesy of the United Nations Development Programme development by creating barriers for Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP) local communities displaced in 1967 Military Order No. (59) prevents to return to their lands. By forcefully Palestinians from registering their expelling the majority of the population properties with the responsible he Vision for Area C of the Jordan Valley, Israel was able to authorities. This creates strategic Because Area C is critical T to Palestinian national development, sovereignty, A view of Modi’in and the Barrier from the terraces of the under construction cafeteria. and sustainability, the framework on Photo courtesy of Ventura Formicone - @UNDP/PAPP. which the Palestinian agenda and the National Development Plan (NDP) 2014-2016 are constructed includes several key measures for Area C: Firstly, all interventions must be premised with the understanding that Area C is territory of the West Bank, to be governed in civil and military aspects by the Palestinians. This means that Palestinian sovereignty over the territory and its resources is core towards a sustainable and viable Palestinian State. Secondly, within the current context of occupation, it is important to protect Area C from land annexation and the systematic forced displacement of the local population. Thirdly, it is necessary to create measures that strengthen Palestinian resilience, facilitate access to key resources, guarantee freedom of movement, and secure their basic human rights as a population under occupation. Fourthly, it is imperative to work towards connecting the geographical Palestinian territories overall, in particular strengthening the economic, social, and civil harmony between Areas A, B, and C. All aforementioned factors are 24 25 difficulties in claiming ownership to the land in Area C and therefore access to it. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the total area of land cultivated by Palestinians in 2010 was 1,207,061 dunums (120,706 hectares), compared to 1,700,042 dunums (170,004 hectares) cultivated in 1982. This decline can be attributed directly to Israeli policies towards Palestinian agriculture in the area, including restrictions posed on access to water. (ii) Restrictions of Construction, Infrastructure, and Development The urban-planning regime imposed by Israel creates conditions for local communities that are deemed unlivable. In particular, restrictions on infrastructure cause risky environments for an already vulnerable population, given that any renovation or new construction requires Israeli approval through a long, complex, and discriminatory process. Therefore, the needs of the growing population are not being met and the new generation of Palestinians is prevented from building Shufaat Refugee Camp. Photo courtesy of Ahed Izhiman. their communities in a sustainable manner. Current data reveal that the illegal settlements and their businesses. were designed and implemented by All the aforementioned groups work majority of communities in Area C are In addition to settlements, the Israeli local communities, local councils and at some level of coordination within not connected to water networks, power military practices have helped create committees, NGOs, and cooperatives the Palestinian national development grids, and other basic necessities. This a network of military zones (and firing who act in a mediatory role with framework on Area C. However, given leaves the existing population reliant zones) that add to both the insecurity other agencies of the Palestinian the Israeli military paradigm, it is on costly resources and many of the in the area and also towards the further government, donors, UN agencies, and difficult to offer protection, governance, more marginalized families vulnerable fragmenting of local territory. Other the international community. and socio-civil administrative support to displacement. means of dominating the local area At the political and national level, to the local communities. include the practice of declaring arable (iii) Sustaining Territorial Dominance the local government continues to lands and water-rich zones as natural provide support wherever possible. The The Agenda of the Palestinian Through Law and Occupation reserves that are accessible only to Palestinian private sector plays a role in National Development Plan in A core means by which the Israeli settlers in the area. Area C in its pursuit to further national Area C occupation contributes to local development plans and ambitions Palestinian de-development includes Actors in Humanitarian in Area C. Intervention and aid is The agenda of the Palestinian National its continuous dominance over land Development Interventions in Area C delivered through agents that work Development Plan includes six key and territory via military law and by funding, witnessing, documenting, policy directives: military supremacy. The two elements In a response to the growing needs of and advocating for Area C, most of (i) Unify the Palestinian territory and the communities in Area C, multiple work closely together to create deep whom have slowly merged into clusters its economy via ensuring the best stakeholders have emerged in order to disparities among the local population. that address three key areas: human utilization of the local resources. respond to the development of the area Following the 1967 war, Israel issued a rights violations, gaps in infrastructure and to respond to humanitarian gaps (ii) Revive the national economy and series of military orders in the Jordan and development, and humanitarian that continue to deteriorate livelihoods. advance the Palestinian private sector Valley area that have contributed response. significantly towards the development of At the grass-roots level, interventions to enhance its competitive capacities.

26 27 (iii) Develop institutions and financial stability, and enhance the ability of institutions to provide key services. (iv) Battle poverty and unemployment in the pursuit of social justice that is transparent and equitable across race, class, and gender lines. (v) Work towards improving the political system to reflect respect and value of human rights. (vi) Enhance the participation of the State of Palestine regionally and globally, and promote its active engagement at the international level by shaping the Palestinian legislative and institutional system.

Next Steps A key means of developing Area C requires access and control of Area C resources in order to overcome the current situation in which Palestinians continue to struggle in regaining control over viable land and water resources. At a policy level, it is important to advocate the implementation of the Palestinian national development goals in Area C; on the ground, a mix of developmental and humanitarian policies is necessary to maintain and enhance Palestinian resilience. To do so, key actors that include the Palestinian government have a role to play in creating strategic plans for Area C. In addition to improving the infrastructure of the area, there is a need to work at the community level in order to link rural and urban sectors of the Palestinian economy. Furthermore, establishing a national education and health platform that is accessible across the entire Area C is critical towards improving the livelihoods of local communities.

Shufaat Refugee Camp. Photo courtesy of Ahed Izhiman. 28 “war of construction” came with better Israel’s War amenities – “Venetian blinds,” “a full linen closet” – than most other war Over 400 Jewish towns shot up zones, but its targets were nonetheless in the early years of statehood: the same. The new state looked to one for almost every destroyed of Construction overpower one people in place of Palestinian locality. The “war of another, only this time through the construction” formed the second medium of space. The sociologist Sari phase of development in the Hanafi coined the term “spaciocide” transformation of Palestine into to describe the “entire Israeli project Israel. In this way, destruction since 1948,” which has produced and construction went on to form far fewer casualties than other major twinned strategies of erasure and conflicts while still causing devastating usurpation, working in tandem to losses. As Hanafi has explained, “In convert Palestinian spaces into every conflict, belligerents define their Israeli state lands. By Sophia Bardi enemy and shape their mode of action accordingly. In the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Israeli target is the place.”i In the events of 1947–1948, property he documentary- destruction was a key feature. Bombs propaganda film rocked urban centers, decimating T Homecoming was released familiar spaces; whole communities just one year after the events were reduced to rubble. Schools, cafés, of the Nakba, during which anywhere farms, and cultural sites were cleared or from 400 to 600 Palestinian villages converted, tacked on to the expanding were destroyed by Israeli forces. Jewish state. In the countryside, Israeli “On the home front, it’s a war of paramilitary forces advanced a set of construction. A quiet war,” intones the Area A pictured in the foreground, while Area C 1949 film, made by the United Israel settlements surround Bethlehem. Appeal to drum up foreign financial contributions to the fledgling state. In one scene, a young couple clutching bundles of luggage saunters down an unpaved street. A row of identical white homes gleams beyond them, all freshly assembled. Inside one house, a middle- aged man beams with pleasure as he draws open a line of window slats. “A victory has been realized,” continues the narrator, “a glorious conquest, with the luxury of Venetian blinds... the wonder of a full linen closet.” These three residents, newcomers to the Jewish state, were among hundreds of thousands of new citizens drafted to the front line of Israel’s construction boom. After the violent demolitions of 1947–1948, a quieter war took place across the country, with a rush of new developments literally cementing the transformation of Palestine into the new Jewish state. Israel’s so-called

30 31 military campaigns. Plan Dalet, now which totalled some 1.3 million people at In many cases, the substitution was In its place, Israel’s post-war settlements perhaps the most notorious, set out the time – was forced to flee, directly or exact. Majdal Yaba, depopulated during often resembled American suburbs, specific instructions for the destruction indirectly. Demolition and depopulation the summer of 1948, became the Jewish with new houses scattered, crop-like, in of villages. They included “setting fire went hand in hand. Property attacks not transit camp of Rosh Ha’ayin, and by seemingly infinite order. They colonized to, blowing up, and planting mines.”ii only erased Palestinian infrastructure 1950 had evolved into a permanent hills and plains in tidy satellite rows, Attacks on Palestinian space spurred but also eradicated layers upon layers colony. Beit She’an, near the Jordan pantomiming modern middle-class an exodus of residents to neighboring of cultural history, propelling whole River Valley, contained the Arab village normalcy. Yet they also represented countries, somber processions toward communities away from the properties of Baysan before it was demolished in a new vernacular, a national likeness safer grounds. Terrified residents were and practices to which they had long 1948. Sderot began as a collection of that was by definition non-Palestinian. removed by troops, as in Zarnuga, or been tied. But targeted demolitions were tents on the former Palestinian village Throughout its history, the Israeli the Christian village of Al-Rama, or only the initial phase of development. of . Not far from today’s city, parts state has used numerous means not else, like the villagers of Khirbat ‘, Destruction cleaned the slate of property of the old village can still be glimpsed only to conquer the landscape, but to they were goaded into leaving by and of people in anticipation of future in ruins. New townships were literally inflect it with the signs and symbols surrounding attacks. After statehood, construction, but Israel’s “quiet war” was built over former villages, blocking of a new population. Lands have been now focused mostly on new structures. expulsions accelerated. Groups set the possibility of Palestinian return. In rebranded through diverse means, Over 400 Jewish towns shot up in the out for Egypt, , and beyond the 1949, a reporter from The New York from JNF afforestation to the breakneck early years of statehood: one for almost West Bank border, embarked on slow Times mused while watching bulldozers construction of Jewish housing projects. climbs to , or were bused to every destroyed Palestinian locality. The “war of construction” formed the begin “clearing away a wrecked Arab Now, Palestine’s ethnic cleansing was neighboring Jordan. Refugees were second phase of development in the village for the first of nine settlements,” supported not only through the physical never to return. Meanwhile, Israeli transformation of Palestine into Israel. In that “this means, obviously, that very destruction of Palestinian homes and territory ballooned from only 1,800 this way, destruction and construction few of the 750,000 refugees...will infrastructure but also by supplanting square kilometers before the war to a went on to form twinned strategies ever return to their former abodes in Palestinian structures with new building whopping 20,000. of erasure and usurpation, working in Israeli territory.”iii Little evidence now vocabularies. To be sure, Israel’s In just two years, at least half of tandem to convert Palestinian spaces remained of their “former abodes,” and growth came as an act of territorial Palestine’s Palestinian population – into Israeli state lands. of Palestine’s Palestinian past. usurpation. But underneath the guns

A small boy rides his bike in Nabi Saleh under the shadow of the Jewish settlement of Halamish. 32 33 Much like Israel’s earliest compounds, the territories into a mirror image of the today’s settlements in the West Bank Jewish state.iv continue to lay siege on Palestinian lands, maintaining a state of persistent Ariel Sophia Bardi holds a PhD from conflict. Built atop the peaks of the hilly Yale University, where her research terrain, these surveillance fortresses looked at the role of architecture in visually dominate the valleys. They defining new forms of power in India, mime the practices of early Zionist Pakistan, and Israel/Palestine. She expansion, making today’s settlers is the recipient of numerous awards heirs to the state’s early builders. and fellowships, and has carried Palestinians now live within a grid of out separate projects in the West semi-autonomous towns and cities, Bank, Turkey, and Nepal. Her writings, segmented by a network of Israeli roads documentary photographs, and and settlements. Patrolled by armed artworks have appeared in publications guards, with living rooms designed throughout the world.

The remains of a in an industrial zone near the northern Israeli town of Shelomi, built in 1950 on the ruins of al-Bassa. The Palestinian village was mostly destroyed by Israeli troops in May of 1948. and battle cries, the state’s “quiet war” settlers checkered the countryside with also formed a war of representation. population blocs, building their own Housing blocs have enacted a longer, archipelago nation. Their compounds subtler, and, in some ways, more were self-contained, connected to one pernicious form of violence. Since another by a constellation of Jewish its earliest history, building has been roads. Buildings waged a shadow war, linked to the growth of the Israeli state. a quiet war, appropriating territory in Though it reached its fever pitch after anticipation of the state. Cropping up, 1948, Israel’s “war of construction” fortress-like, in strategic locations, was in fact part of a process that Jewish settlements slowly changed the had begun sixty years prior, with face of the landscape. Designed as both Palestine’s earliest Jewish colonies. housing and surveillance units, they Known, with a whiff of the American were the first instruments of Palestine’s Old West, as “pioneers,” Jewish war of construction.

A line of settlement houses towers above a valley. A post-war housing unit in northern Israel. Developments were constructed in rings so that residents could patrol frontierlands, much like today’s settlements in Area C of the West Bank.

as observation towers, the red-roofed suburban homes of the settlements of i Sari Hanafi, “Spaciocide as a Colonial Policy in the Palestinian Territories,” Grotius International, Area C are ubiquitous, always looming September 30, 2009, Web source. above. In smaller compounds, tan ii Quoted by Walid Khalidi, “Text of Plan Gimmel and white sheds snake around low, (Plan C), May 1946: Section on Countermeasures,” rock-strewn hills. Even in the dead of Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1, 1988, night, rings of bright lights stake their p. 20. ground. By day, settlements remain iii Quoted in Joseph Schechtman, Population omnipresent. To use the historian Transfers in Asia, New York: Hallsby Press, 1949. iv Gyanendra Pandey, Remembering Partition: Gyanendra Pandey’s expression, these Violence, Nationalism, and History in India, building forms have become a way of Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. “nationalizing the nation,” transforming 17. 34 35 Ministry of Local Government Engagement in Area C

TWIP Collective

e met Dr. Tawfiq Bdeiri, Deputy Assistant for The challenges are great, Dr. Tawfiq Bdeiri Planning and Engineering Affairs at the Ministry of concludes. With the abolishment of local and W Local Government, in his office in Ramallah, shortly district planning committees in 1971, as stipulated prior to taking this issue of This Week in Palestine by the (supposedly) implemented Jordanian to print. As per the title, we wanted a first-hand account on the Planning Law of the year 1966, and with a Higher Ministry of Local Government’s engagement in Area C. With a Planning Council currently represented solely by doctorate in Regional and Urban Planning from Cairo University Israeli army personnel, very few local outline plans and hands-on experience after years at the Ministry, Bdeiri was and infrastructure projects intended for Palestinian the right person to talk to. communities in Area C had been approved since the The Ministry of Local Government is quite conscious of Area 1970’s. In 2011, the ministry started encouraging C’s potential impact on the economy of a future Palestinian the Palestinian communities in Area C to prepare State, Bdeiri says. He refers to the World Bank’s July 2014 alternative local outline plans to meet their needs report that estimates a hike of as much as thirty-five percent and aspirations. Only three out of the seventy-seven local outline plans submitted to the Palestinian GDP, an extra US$ 2.4 billion, if businesses to the Israeli Civil Administration received approval. However, in a new practice and farms were permitted to develop in Area C. With that drive, adopted by the ministry, if eighteen months have passed and no reply from the the ministry is doing its best to implement its mandate to help Israeli Civil Administration has been received, the Ministry of Local Government local communities in planning infrastructure issues and helping starts implementation without explicit Israeli approval. In some cases, Bdeiri says, prepare local outline plans (master plans) with the clear goal of Israel did not object. Finally, Dr. Bdeiri’s expressed his wish for the donor community local economic development. Following a national strategy of to be bolder in extending aid to develop local communities in Area C even without giving priority to Area C, adopted in 2011, the Ministry of Local the Israeli authorities’ approval. Government followed suit to ensure steadfastness on the ground.

Engagement with the local communities is best witnessed in Article photos from Palestine Image Bank. the preparing of the outline plans. The participatory approach adopted was met with extraordinary local enthusiasm. Successful workshops were set up where, in some cases, illiterate people participated in the drawing of the map of their village or local community. The Ministry of Local Government’s engagement with the people, along with its advocacy that empowers local residents, has created a relationship that is based on trust and good faith. Another success, Bdeiri adds, is the local understanding and the willingness to implement the concept of public good.

36 37 regarding control and territorial UN-Habitat’s reduction that weaken the structure and viability of Palestinian statehood. Area UN-Habitat, together with other C is a cornerstone to the sustainable local and national stakeholders Spatial Planning development of a Palestinian state, has been engaged in different since it contains not only valuable spatial planning interventions Interventions in natural resources and a rich cultural for the past four years, providing heritage, but also represents the bulk support to vulnerable Palestinian of available land for future spatial communities in the Israeli Area C of the West development. Furthermore, Area occupied Area C of the West C holds a considerable, yet so far Bank to defend their building Bank untapped potential, as it is inhabited and planning rights that have by only six percent of Palestinians in been undermined by the the West Bank and as such drives the measures enforced by the Israeli authorities, chiefly the Israeli Civil Courtesy of UN-Habitat Palestine Programme phenomenon of artificial land scarcity in Palestine. The geo-political designation Administration (ICA), which is of the West Bank into three areas (A, B, part of the Israeli army apparatus. and C) with different levels of authority was meant to be a temporary stage to enable the discussions for a phased rea C of the West Bank, as it stands today (sixty percent of allocation of lands to the Palestinian the West Bank that fall under full Israeli control), creates a side, but this transition has never been A state of gradual decline for the meaningful development of done due to the political impasse in the peace process. Nevertheless, Palestinians. It is characterized by formidable challenges the status of the West Bank overall as land occupied by Israel was not altered, and Palestinians are defined under international human rights law as a “protected population” and Israel as an “occupying power” that is not sovereign in the territory and therefore prohibited from making permanent changes; rather it must protect the status quo. UN-Habitat, as the UN agency for human settlements, is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. UN-Habitat’s programs are designed to help policy makers and local communities come to grips with the issues of human settlements and urban planning and to find workable and lasting solutions. In 2003, conscious of the special housing and human-settlements needs of the Palestinian people, and recognizing that they fall within the technical mandate of UN-Habitat, the Governing Council of UN-Habitat endorsed the establishment of the Special Human Settlements Programme for the Palestinian People Wall plastering through Community Mobilization at Izbet Tabib in Qalqiliya. (SHSPP). 38 39 input from the local communities to transfer of planning powers in Area C foster development and resist the to the Palestinians - to the largest extent occupation’s discriminatory planning possible and as an essential component processes; (3) the mobilization of over in the state-building process. The 10,000 Palestinians in participatory intention is that this approach will planning processes, which in turn make development interventions more has contributed to the development concrete by meeting the current needs of their resilience and community of Palestinians, without undermining cohesion; (4) the protection of more their future aspirations and rights to than 55,000 Palestinians in Area C planning and development. and East Jerusalem from eviction Spatial planning interventions in the and forced displacement; and (5) the geo-political context of Area C are continued efforts to ensure a high level not rudimentary from the outset. The of coordinated advocacy activities. A bulk of Palestinian communities in result of the last point is the report of Area C are threatened by demolitions the Independent International Advisory and displacement. According to Board on Spatial Planning in Area C that official Israeli data, more than 11,000 examined the planning situation in Area Demolition Orders against ca. 17,000 C, benchmarked against international Palestinian-owned structures in Area quality standards local outline plans that C have been issued. Furthermore, land were prepared by and with Palestinian delineations in Area C show sober communities, and concluded that realities in terms of planning inequalities: these local outline plans are technically in 2014, plans for Palestinians targeted sound and should be endorsed by the 0.4 percent of Area C land compared Israeli authorities, namely the Israeli to 20.1 percent designated for illegal Civil Administration (ICA), without any Israeli settlements. Area C is considered further delays. a cornerstone for the sustainability of In September, 2015 the UN family in Palestinian statehood. A World Bank Palestine adopted a “One UN” Approach report in 2014 showed that alleviating to Spatial Planning in Area C of the Israeli restrictions in Area C would occupied West Bank in which it assured generate a sum equivalent to thirty- that it will continue to advocate for the five percent of the Palestinian GDP

A Periodical Newsletter on Area C.

One of the visible interventions of the economic functions, and housing. UN-Habitat programs in Palestine has More specifically, a panoply of planning been the Planning Support Programme interventions has been introduced for Palestinian Communities in Area to harness the associated economic C of the West Bank (2012-2015). potentials of the areas that are The main objectives of this program currently affected by discriminatory could be boiled down into: satisfying planning restrictions, including: (1) an acceptable level of legalization to the preparation of four planning stop the increasing number of housing policy papers as inputs for the main demolition orders issued by the Israeli national partner, the State of Palestine authorities; and spearheading spatial Ministry of Local Government (MoLG); development plans that guarantee (2) the preparation of 145 multi- the provision of infrastructural lines, layered spatial plans drafted with Coloring the curb stones of sidewalks through a youth initiative in Dab’a village. 40 41 in collaboration with the MoLG, the IPCC, and other local partners, initiated a non-statutory planning approach, called Placemaking, to turn the public space in Imneizil into livable places. More specifically, designs for village roads, school surroundings, and a public playground were made with the local inhabitants in a participatory way and drafted in three iterative rounds of consultations with women, youth, elderly, and others from the local community of Imneizil. Some of these designs were funded by the EU via community contracting in order to implement some of the prioritized projects under the local community action plan that had been endorsed by the Village Council of Imneizil. At this time, other donors are investing in the village by building new roads and public facilities according to the approved plans, a practice that represents a model to other Palestinian villages in Area C: local communities have been empowered to plan for their villages, which has rendered the inhabitants more resilient and assured their confidence to plan and develop “for a better urban future”. UN-Habitat will continue to work closely with its national partner, the MoLG, and with other local and international stakeholders to support the delivery of spatial planning interventions needed to enable sustainable development in At one of the Local Planning workshops in South Hebron. in 2011, including direct and indirect the , nearby Israeli Area C and in the West Bank at large. Gender and human rights mainstreaming will benefits, which translates into $800 settlements, and by-pass roads - the continue to be the guiding principles for its implementation strategy, working in ways million a year of additional tax revenues village has come under the serious that are geo-politically responsive and socio-economically and environmentally for the Government of Palestine. threat of forcible displacement, and sensitive in order to ensure sustainability of the introduced spatial planning These numbers reflect the prevailing as it lacks statutory local outline interventions and to support the flag-ship project of building Palestinian statehood. planning crisis in Area C and the plans, most of the new houses and squandered development opportunities constructions in the village that were Ahmad El-Atrash has a PhD in Spatial Planning from TU-Dortmund University, that could be unlocked for the benefit of built after 1990 are under the threat of Germany. He is a project manager and senior urban planner at the UN-Habitat Palestinian communities. demolition. Under the supervision of office in Palestine. He has solid experience and interest in issues related to geo- the MoLG and the International Peace political and strategic planning, governance reform, resilience, and sustainable development within the Palestinian context. He can be reached via email at ahmad. The Case of Imneizil Village, South and Cooperation Centre (IPCC) and with financial support from the UK, Imneizil [email protected] of Hebron village prepared a local outline plan that Imneizil is a small Palestinian village was submitted to the ICA in July 2011. International planners discussing the futre of the heartland of the West Bank. - PC for UN-Habitat. south of As Samu’, about nine In March 2014, after multiple rounds kilometers away from the southern of negotiations with the ICA, further parts of the mother town of Yatta and detailing to the local outline plan – and seventeen kilometers south-west of with EU funds and technical support Hebron city, bordering the Green Line from UN-HAbitat – the ICA finally (Armistice Line for the year 1949). endorsed the plan, thus making it one Imneizil is inhabited by nearly 450 among the first three Palestinian-led Palestinians, or sixty families of an plans ever to be approved by the Israeli average size of 7.5 family members. authorities. To further engage the local The village is a hot spot in the Israeli inhabitants in the plan-making and to occupied Area C of the West Bank. establish a connection between the Because of its proximity to the Israeli inhabitants and the built environment, matrix of control - located between especially the public space, UN-Habitat, 42 43 The dramatic contrast regarding the different. Largely deprived of the ability The Political rights of individuals living in Area C is to link to common sanitation, water stark: Israeli citizens residing in Area networks, and electrical grids, their C enjoy state protection through the attempts at improving their standard Economy of Area C application of Israeli civil law, just as of living face myriad challenges. In would any Israeli living in or recent years, most Palestinians were Tiberias. They receive health care, are not able to obtain an Israeli permit to guaranteed labor rights, and enjoy ease renovate, let alone build, their homes of access over broad highways that or essential infrastructure, a practice slice through Area C of the West Bank that prevents any natural community and make the crossing of the Green Line growth or expansion. Structures, practically imperceptible – for settlers including homes, built without permits riding in cars with Israeli (yellow) are routinely demolished, and families license plates that easily glide through forcibly evicted. check points. “Bedroom communities” By strategically controlling Area C, the Courtesy of the United Nations Development Programme of settlements sprinkle the West Bank, Israeli occupation and settler-economy Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP) as do immense urban sprawls, all have largely benefitted from both the offering appealing economic incentives resources and the geography of the for residents: low-rate mortgages, area. A recent World Bank report, rea C – as commonly referred to in the post-Oslo era, comprises an cheap housing prices, full access to incorporating information received approximate sixty-one percent of the West Bank.1 Through the 1995 services, and spectacular landscapes. from the Palestinian Central Bureau of A Interim Agreement between Israel and the PLO, the West Bank was For the three hundred thousand Statistics (PCBS), highlights the key divided into three categories: Area A (eighteen percent of the West Palestinians living in Area C,2 life is quite potential of growth and development Bank) is home to the major Palestinian cities and houses the majority of the Palestinian population, governed under A worker at the cafeteria in the park of Abu Lomon. the Palestinian Authority (PA). Area B Photo courtesy of Ventura Formicone - @UNDP/PAPP. (twenty-two percent of the West Bank) is a largely rural area where Israel maintains security control and has transferred civil control to the PA. In Area C, the Palestinian government is responsible for health and education, but the infrastructure for both health and education facilities is entirely under Israeli control and discretion, as is security, civil administration, planning, infrastructure, and construction. Area C represents a critical mass of productive capital, natural resources, and fertile land that links over two hundred small urban hubs across the territory. As per the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, it was stipulated that it would gradually be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, to be under Palestinian control by the year 1998. This transfer has yet to materialize, and a heightened occupation of Area C continues to displace the local population, create barriers towards Palestinian economic empowerment, and pose restrictions to the movement of people. 44 45 Area C could hold for the Palestinian with few legal options. On matters of and development across the entire State development for Palestinians. It has economy if Palestinians had access and contesting land confiscation, demolition of Palestine in the long term. been reported that both Israel and control: current loss to the Palestinian orders, or the non-granting of building Agriculture in Area C is one of the Jordan derive an estimated US$ 4.2 economy caused by Israeli-imposed billion in annual sales from products sold permits, legal remedy for Palestinians main sectors that could help kick- restrictions is valued at US$ 3.4 billion.3 in the international markets. Moreover, residing in Area C can only be sought start the Palestinian economy with an It is estimated that the additional tax steady growth is anticipated in the through the Israeli High Court, an estimated 326,400 dunums4 of arable revenues associated with a US$ 3.4 demand for both potash and bromine; onerous, costly, and normally dead- land potentially available to Palestinians billion increase in GDP would amount and therefore, Palestinian access and ended process. Thus, the demographic in Area C. With the right of access to to some US$ 800 million - assuming investment in this area would indeed reality of increasing proximity between water and other agricultural inputs, an that there would be no improvements prove profitable. It is estimated that Israeli and Palestinian communities estimated US$ 704 million could be in the efficiency of tax collection, which from production and sales of potash, has led to dramatic security issues added directly to the Palestinian GDP is currently at a rate of 20% tax/GDP. bromine and magnesium, Palestinians for Palestinians in particular. Every 5 Were such restrictions removed, the per year. This would further enhance could increase their GDP by 9% (or US$ moment lost in anticipation of a political resulting increase in productivity could the capacities of farming communities 918 million).6 solution will see more intractable issues that have been obliged to work in dramatically improve the Palestinian Another key resource that could government’s fiscal position. It could created over this expanse of land. urban centers, create opportunities for women, and impact food security contribute substantially to the reduce the current fiscal deficit by Palestinian economy includes the over Economic Potential of Area C across the State of Palestine. Currently, half, which in turn would enhance 20,000 dunums (2,000 hectares) of effectiveness of international aid, a viable settler-based agriculture The key potential sectors that can be economy flourishes across Area C. land suitable for quarrying in Area C. reduce dependence on donors for unleashed by an eventual Palestinian This particular sector is significant recurrent budget support, improve It has been estimated that Israeli control of Area C include agriculture, settlements and their agricultural to the local economy as it holds the fiscal sustainability, and enhance tourism, Dead Sea minerals, ventures are roughly valued at US$ promise of creating an additional investor confidence in the Palestinian construction, telecommunication, 251 million. 15,000 jobs. However, under the economy. stone mining, quarrying, and more. In current circumstances, the stone The steady loss of land and protracted addition, an overall investment in the Similarly, the Dead Sea minerals industry faces several challenges: it inability to foster indigenous infrastructure and administration of industry is a lucrative business that faces prohibitions on the importing of development leaves Palestinians Area C could attract further investment could foster further investment and key machinery, costly export-related

Dead Sea. Photo courtesy of Ahed Izhiman. 46 47 towers necessary for mobile service and impedes the laying of landlines and ADSL cables. Only 2G frequencies are provided to two Palestinian mobile operators, while the 3G spectrum is monopolized by Israeli companies. Furthermore, costs are excessively high for Palestinian consumers, as necessary equipment has to be imported at higher than normal market prices. The quality and service of Palestinian companies is lower than their Israeli competitors who have developed the necessary infrastructure in Area C. Some rough estimates suggest that the sector has the potential of increasing the Palestinian GDP by 0.5%, which would be equivalent to US$ 48 million in value.7 Therefore, if the current restrictions were to be relaxed, the Palestinian economy would benefit greatly from access to key trade routes, resources, and land that could be converted into profitable industries.

Barriers to Palestinian Economic Growth By controlling Area C, the Israeli occupation has strengthened its grip over the local Palestinian economy of the West Bank. First, the security-political-development nexus plays a key role in how the Palestinian economy is curbed. Since the An oil press in the village of Haja. Photo courtesy of Ventura Formicone - @UNDP/PAPP. logistics, lack of investment due to current socio-political and legal climate Oslo agreements, the Palestinian Authority was required to operate under a specific investment restrictions, and an intense plays a critical role in curbing the set of guidelines laid out by Israel. Within a structure that is shaped to sustain permit system that has prevented potential of the tourism industry, which Israeli security above all, the Palestinian Government has limited room to manage Palestinians from opening new quarries holds the potential of competing with its borders and resources and, therefore, its own development. Second, while in Area C since 1994. These conditions Israel’s hotel and tourism industry - recent years have witnessed a slow and steady growth of Palestinian businesses, have led to intensified and localized given the overall security concerns of the restrictions on trade continue to create barriers towards prosperity. Private quarrying in and around fertile lands travellers in the region. Israel currently investment and businesses continue to struggle under a system that controls critical in Areas A and B. Currently, the stone controls all land crossings and border aspects of what should be an open and free economic market space. For instance, industry in the West Bank is a key areas, making access to the occupied the manufacturing sector, which is critical for export-oriented growth, has been contributor to Palestinian exports with Palestinian territory challenging for stagnant since 1994 due to Israeli restrictions on the development of infrastructure US$ 60 million in annual sales (17% tourists who wish to visit the territory and on the importing of necessary machinery, as well as by complete control over of the total value), and with increased directly. All visitors and tourists are key internal crossings, which has a severe impact on the mobility of labour and access, this contribution could generate subjected to Israeli security protocols goods. The viability and growth of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state - by a conservative estimate - US$ 241 that pose restrictions on tourists who is deeply tied to the control over territory, particularly Area C and its resources. million per year, an equivalent of 2% of wish to visit, work, research, and Any sustainable plan towards serious economic growth and development must the GDP. But as a number of quarries invest in the State of Palestine. These include Palestinian access to Area C and control of its local natural resources are coming to the end of their life-cycle, challenges greatly curb the potential of without restrictions to the movement of goods and labour. there is a fear of collapse across this the Palestinian tourism industry. industry. Thus, there is an urgent need Another emerging industry is the 1 B’tselem, (2013), Area C: What is Area C?, available at http://www.btselem.org/area_c/what_is_area_c. for an overall critical assessment of Palestinian telecommunications sector 2 Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, (August 2014), Area C of the West Bank: Key Humanitarian stone quarrying and its effect on local which has proven to be competitive and Concerns, available at https://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_area_c_factsheet_august_2014_ climate, land use, and the environment. english.pdf. lucrative. However, the barriers towards 3 World Bank, (October 2, 2013), Report: Area C and the Future of the Palestinian Economy. Global tourism to the region and more the telecommunications infrastructure 4 A dunum is a unit of land area enclosing 1,000 square meters: 326,400 dunums is equivalent to 32,640 specifically to the State of Palestine in Area C drastically impact the growth hectares. could open great opportunities for of the sector. For instance, the current 5 World Bank Report, October 2013. development and growth in the Israeli-imposed permit system prevents 6 Ibid. Palestinian economy. However, the the construction of communication 7 Ibid. 48 49 Outline Planning in Area C: An Alternative Approach

Wafa Butmeh and Jihad Rabayaa

Community participation in the planning of Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron. Photo courtesy of UN-Habitat.

he planning and building crisis in Area C dates back to the early 1970s, the 116 most affected localities in the when shortly after the 1967 war, the Israeli authorities abolished all Local West Bank, irrespective of whether T Planning Committees, essentially the Palestinian village councils, along they are close to the Green Line, with all District Planning Committees. As a consequence, Palestinian settlements, the Apartheid Separation For almost two decades, representation was eliminated from the hierarchy of the planning regime and all Wall, or even inside restricted military basically since its creation, Area planning decisions were concentrated in the hands of the Israeli Higher Planning zones. The plans are funded by six C has been excluded from any Council (HCP). After the signing of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian authority received different channels: by the Palestinian statuary planning initiative of the the right to plan in only forty percent of the West Bank (Areas A and B), while planning government, Belgium, France, and the Government of Palestine (GoP) in the remaining sixty percent, known as Area C, was under the mandate of the Israeli UK, while the EU funded the detailing of in the West Bank whose planning Civil Administration (ICA). The latter, concerned with the geographical containment a number of the already prepared plans. was concentrated in Areas A and of Palestinian localities in Area C, adopted outdated plans from the British Mandate Seventy-seven of the local outline plans B. In 2011, in order to circumvent era and special plans prepared by the Israeli military during the 1980s that delineated were submitted to the ICA. However, the occupation authority’s the village boundaries as the basis for their decision making. These so-called blue as the discussion phase requires an policies of forced eviction and lines were drawn tightly around the existing built-up areas in a process that never unreasonable amount of time due demolition that were based on consulted the local communities. The ICA and felt justified to consider new buildings to the requirement of obtaining the the pretext that the land in Area outside the blue lines as illegal structures and since 1993, very limited numbers approval of all subcommittees in the C was uninhabited, the Ministry of permits were issued for new buildings outside these borders, while demolition ICA, approximately half of the submitted of Local Government (MoLG), orders were generously delivered and executed in Palestinian communities in Area C. plans are stuck in the technical supported by the Palestinian discussion phase. Only three plans Cabinet, started to follow an In 2011, in a step aimed at opposing and stopping the Israeli policy of unjustifiable alternative planning approach by demolition and forced displacement of the Palestinian population in Area C, the have succeeded in receiving a positive final authorization when - after three drafting local outline plans and Palestinian Ministry of Local Government (MoLG), supported by the Palestinian implementing them under certain cabinet, adopted an alternative planning approach. Based on the prevailing Jordanian years of discussion sessions moving back and forth - plans for the villages conditions without necessarily Law number (79) - which states that each has the right to initiate securing direct and overt official planning in its village and which is binding for both Palestinians and Israelis in the Imneizil in the Hebron district, Tas Tirah and Al-Dabah mear Qalqilya, and Israeli approval. This process occupied West Bank - the MoLG was able to argue that plans initiated by the local was undertaken together with the councils and prepared with the local communities should be reviewed by the ICA Wadi Al-Neis near Bethlehem received approval. Another five plans have been local communities to make sure to grant them approval and authorization as statutory documents, thus considering that their needs and aspirations new expansion areas as legal zones for building and development. announced for public objection for more than a year now - six times longer than are properly addressed. Since 2011, the MoLG has commissioned private Palestinian planning firms to the conventional time span; seven plans draft 108 spatial outline plans targeting around 100,000 persons and covering have been rejected, as it is claimed that 50 51 these communities are illegal and do not exist as individual villages. Impact of planning initiatives across the West Bank (2015): Table 1: The Popuation per Governorate that Benefitted from Development Plans With the number of plans in each governorate indicated between brackets. (Source: Ministry of Local Government, 2015)

Draft local outline plan of Azzebeidat by drafted by Center for Engineering and Planning (CEP).

Despite the fact that only three plans the , when several In summary, this planning initiative was core of any planning intervention. were approved, the MoLG considers projects were nominated to receive a step towards achieving development On the other hand, the authorization this initiative a breakthrough: it has funds before their local outline plans goals, reclaiming the right to the land, process requires an unreasonable built the capacity of over one hundred had been formally approved. and asserting Palestinian sovereignty. effort in time and procedures and the Local Government Units (LGUs) across Thus, several villages have been As any pilot initiative, it had its successes localities whose plans were rejected the West Bank and has increased their successful in creating facts on the and failures. On the one hand, it has are still suffering from the threat of awareness of their rights to the land ground according to the plans, either empowered the local communities, demolition and other risks that include and to adequate service provision. It by constructing an individual building, incited them to be proactive, and stop work orders, the confiscation of also illustrates a remarkable success in such as a school or kindergarten, or illustrated that people should be the equipment, or forcible displacement by terms of emphasizing the importance by establishing water networks. “The of participatory planning, as all plans outline plan of Um Arrihan was a tool were prepared directly with the local to implement several infrastructure communities. Whether authorized or projects, most importantly electricity,” not, the plans are fully adopted by the said the Mayor of Um Arrihan. “The local communities as the tangible result initial plan prepared by the ICA was of their efforts in conceptualizing their only for 56 dunums (5.6 hectares), development needs and aspirations but after two years of training and and in then reflecting them in form of capacity building with MoLG, I was local outline plans. Currently, 108 local equipped with the knowledge to make outline plans have been endorsed by a legal argument against the Israeli the local councils and the MoLG; they planning proposal. After three sets of are used not only as a basis for fund negotiations with the ICA, where we raising, but also for the implementation presented our alternative plan drafted by of development and infrastructure the International Peace and Cooperation projects for plans which have been Center (IPCC), we achieved a plan submitted to the ICA for a period of covering 122 dunums (12.2 hectares) more than eighteen months (which that reflects the needs of the community currently is the case with sixty-one for the next fifteen years; and we no plans). The latter practice has been longer receive demolition orders inside implemented since late 2014, following the planned area.” an agreement between the MoLG and Outline Plan of Khash Al-Karem, South of Hebron. Photo Courtesy of IPCC. 52 53 The special outline plan for the village of Al-Funduq and the route of Road 531, which has not been constructed

the ICA for those living inside restricted Wafa Butmeh is an Urban Planner in military zones. It is also critically UN-Habitat based in the Ministry of important to deal with these plans as Local Government. She graduated temporary solutions, as temporary from University in 2013 as documents that need to be updated an architect with emphasis on urban planning. regularly in order to accommodate the emerging needs of the communities. Finally, in each governorate, these plans Jihad Rabayaa, Head of Geographic Information System (GIS) at the should be linked to the national vision Municipality of Ramallah and of the and to regional development trends in Surveying Department\Ministry of order to achieve cohesive planning in Local Government, has been working all Palestinian land, regardless of the with the MoLG since 1995. geopolitical divisions.

54 Bethlehem; furthermore the Natufian site in Wadi An-Natuf near ; According to the Palestinian Archeological major urban centers at Tell An-Nasbeh, national database of archeological Tell Taannek, and Tell Dothan; a large and historical sites, the Palestinian number of historical Roman, Byzantine Occupied Territory within the Heritage and Islamic sites; and finally holy borders of 1967 contained circa places that are distributed throughout 7,000 sites classified as the the country (eg. the site of Baptism, following: 350 historic centers; Qubbat Rahel and the Bilal mosque), in 2,000 major archeological sites; in Area C addition to thousands of archeological 5,000 archeological features; and features. The division into Areas A, 60,000 historical buildings. B, and C is artificial and part of a transitional arrangement in which Area C temporarily remains under the control of the occupying power.

By Hamdan Taha Oslo Agreement Following the 1993 Palestinian-Israeli Principles on Interim Self-Government agreement, Jericho and Gaza were Arrangement for Palestinians, final handed over to Palestinian control, negotiations were to be completed by ntroduction and by December 1995 the Palestinian May 1999, but the mutually agreed- Being a meeting place for civilizations and a cultural bridge National Authority was given control upon timetable that called for power I between the East and the West, Palestine has played an throughout the West Bank and Gaza transfer has been delayed and never important role in human history. Earliest archeological evidence of in several spheres of responsibility, implemented by Israel. In some parts civilization in the area dates back to the Prehistoric Period and marks including archeology in Areas A and of Area C, powers and responsibilities the emergence of the first settled societies in the Neolithic Period and B. According to the Declaration of in the sphere of archeology will be of urban life in the Bronze Age. Furthermore, as Palestine has unique geological features and an extraordinary cultural landscape, the wealth and diversity of this cultural heritage is an important asset for the Damaged landscape at Wadi Natuf. sustaining of the cultural identity of the Palestinian people and for the economic development of Palestine. According to the Palestinian national database of archeological and historical sites, the Occupied Palestinian Territory within the borders of 1967 contained circa 7,000 sites that reflect the cultural wealth and diversity of the Palestinian areas. They are classified as follows: 350 historic centers 2,000 major archeological sites 5,000 archeological features 60,000 historical buildings The history of these sites ranges from the Paleolithic Period to modern times, and more than half of them (53%) are located in Area C. They consist of main human settlements (Tells and Khirbah), as well as thousands of archeological features such as ancient roads, milestones, water springs, cisterns, pools, caves, cemeteries, water channels, and hundreds of holy shrines (maqams), in addition to cultural and natural landscape and geological features. These archeological sites in Area C represent an integral part of Palestinian cultural heritage, as they are historically associated with Palestinian population centers, and belong to the Palestinian community. They include major prehistoric sites along Wadi Khareitun in Al-Bariyah, located east of Jerusalem and 56 57 transferred gradually to the Palestinian But the new situation gives the Israeli Management Structure in Territory, and therefore remains bound jurisdiction; eventually, this will include Palestinian archeologists, who won Area C by international humanitarian law the entirety of Palestinian Territory in autonomy at the end of the last century, as outlined in the Hague Convention the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza. an independent role to explore the After the Israeli military occupation in and Regulations of 1907, the Fourth 1967, the archeological resources in The Palestinian Department of history of Palestine from its primary Geneva Convention of 1949, the sources, a task reserved until recently the OPT were managed by the Israeli Hague Convention and Protocol of Antiquities was established in 1994, military government through a series during a time of complex difficulties, and for foreign and Israeli archeologists - 1954, the UNESCO recommendation who often made political and ideological of Israeli military orders. Order (119) on International Principles Applicable renamed the Department of Antiquities gave the responsibilities of the Director and Cultural Heritage (DACH) in 2002. It use of these data and their interpretation to Archeological Excavations - which without objective scientific controls. of Antiquities, as per Jordanian law of was adopted by the UNESCO General manages the archeological resources in 1966, to the Israeli military governor; Areas A and B and can be viewed as the The establishment of a national body Conference at its ninth session in New for the management of antiquities and and order (1166) changed the structure Delhi on 5 December 1956, and many revival of the Palestinian Department of of the Advisory Council to include Antiquities that had been established cultural heritage marks the beginning of other resolutions and recommendations a Palestinian field school in archeology representatives of the Israeli Antiquities concerning cultural property in the in 1920, under the British Mandate, Authority and Israeli academic and ceased to exist with the political and signals the return of Palestinians Occupied Palestinian Territories. The institutions. In subsequent years, these State of Palestine was acknowledged as responsibilities were shifted among a full member in the UNESCO in 2011 Israeli Civil Administration officers, but and given non-member observer status it is noteworthy that Palestinians were by the UN General Assembly in 2012. never involved in this council. Palestine has acceded to a significant The tasks of the Archeology Staff number of international conventions Officer and of the Israeli Archeology relating to cultural heritage, including Department of the Civil Administration the Hague Convention of 1954 and the in Area C include drawing and World Heritage Convention of 1972. implementing the archeological policy of the Civil Administration; conducting archeological excavations and surveys in Area C; granting permits for excavations, surveys, and building licenses; and granting permits for the transfer of archeological objects The archeological sites in Area from the Area C to Israel, including for C represent an integral part of participation in archeological exhibitions Palestinian cultural heritage, as outside the Palestinian areas. Since they are associated with the 2012, the Archeology Department Palestinian community. of the Civil Administration was also involved in establishing museums

Tell el-Fureidis (Herodion). associated with Israeli settlements. The Israeli Group Emeq Shavi observed that these activities are part of a policy of using archeological excavations to events of 1948. Because Israel had again to history. This is evident emphasize the Israeli historical narrative Archeological Excavations occupied its premises in 1967, at the through the wide range of activities as a means to strengthen Israeli The Israeli Archeology Staff Officer outset, in 1994, the new department in excavations and restorations, the presence and control of Area C through and the Archeology Department possessed neither archeological record rehabilitation of historic centers, and the integration of archeological sites of the Israeli Civil Administration files nor documentation of the finds international cooperation undertaken into Israeli settlements. This policy, as have conducted a large number of of archeology previously undertaken in the last two decades. it is highlighted here, contradicts with research- and salvage-excavations on its soil. It lacked sufficient space Israel’s responsibility as an occupying in the Palestinian Occupied Territory. and logistical support, and, due to power, as specified in international law. According to Israeli statistics, more inadequate opportunities for field However, in absence of a final peace than 1,000 excavations were conducted training under occupation, the agreement, Israel remains a military in the Palestinian areas between 1967 Palestinian Department inherited a occupier in the Occupied Palestinian and 2007, including more than 300 shortage in qualified personnel. 58 59 enclosed by the Israeli Separation Wall. Some of these sites (Khirbet Qumran, Umm Ar-Rihan, Tell Al-Fureidis, Sabastiya, , monasteries in Al-Bariyah, and the Shuqba cave) are listed in the Palestinian inventory of cultural and natural cultural heritage sites of outstanding universal value.

Destruction of Cultural Heritage Sites Many previously excavated sites have been left unprotected. Since 1967, great damage has been inflicted on archeological and historical sites in the Palestinian areas. They have suffered from military bombing and shelling

In the absence of a final peace agreement, Israel remains a military occupier in the Occupied Palestinian Territory - and therefore remains bound by Hasan Ar-Rai.. international humanitarian law. excavations in East Jerusalem. Major plans. Israeli settlements were given areas include Wadi Khareitun, Al- excavations were carried out in East control over archeological sites in Bariyah, Wadi Al-Qelt, and the nature Jerusalem, inside the town, and in the Deir Al-Murasras in the Maali Adumim reserves of Umm Ar-Rihan, now surrounding areas, including Silwan settlement, Mount Ebal in Nablus, Tell and the surrounding hills. Long-term Ar-Rumeida in Hebron, and Tell Seilun archeolological excavations were in the Shilo settlement. Mount Gerizim. carried out at a number of sites in the West Bank and the Gaza strip, including Archeological Parks in Area C Telul Abu Alayeq near Jericho; Tell Al-Fureidis, east of Bethlehem; Mount Israel declared a number of sites Gerizim and Tell Seilun, near Turmus in the West Bank and Area C as Aya, in the Nablus district; Tell Ar- archeological parks, including the City Rumeida in Hebron and Susiya near Wall in Jerusalem, Khirbet Qumran, Hebron; and Deir Al-Balah in Gaza; Tell Al-Fureidis, Sabastiya, Mount as well as a large number of salvage Gerizim, and Tell Seilun. The ADCA excavations throughout the Occupied conducts archeological activities in the Palestinian Territories. Needless to say, areas declared by the Israeli military these excavations yielded thousands of commander as natural parks and archeological artifacts. nature reserves, which fall under the Most of these excavations were selected responsibility of the Office of Nature for ideological reasons and clearly Reserves and the staff park officers in associated with Israeli settlement the Israeli Civil Administration. Such 60 61 Museums in Area C As part of the Israeli policy to reinforce its control over Palestinian cultural heritage, in 2012 Israel applied the Israeli Museum Law to the West Bank settlements, which included the establishing of a Museum Council in the OPT. The council is composed of representatives of Israeli institutions and settlements. About fifteen settlement museums are listed, including three major museums, among them the Samaritan Inn Museum that hosts primarily heritage from the West Bank and the Pottery Museum in the Qadumim settlement. Hundreds of thousands of archeological artifacts have been transferred from the Palestinian territory to Israeli museums and institutions: mosaic pavements from near the Gaza shore, anthropoid coffins from the cemetery of Deir Al-Balah, mosaic pavements from Nablus and from Deir Samaan and Deir Qal’a in the area, and paintings from the site of Telul Abu Alayeq in Jericho. Archeological artifacts from Palestinian areas have been exhibited in Israeli museums, such as the King Herod exhibition in Jerusalem, and have been presented in international exhibitions, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition organized by the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. In sum, the archeological resources in Area C are an integral part of the Palestinian cultural heritage, and Mar Saba.

the full integration of these resources that caused partial or total destruction from their land and history. Besides its will not be possible without putting an and from Israeli incursions - such as in direct human, economic, and social end to the prolonged Israeli occupation 2002, when a series of archeological negative impact on Palestinian life, of the Palestinian land. and historical sites were demolished, the Separation Wall has devastating including the church of St. Barbara consequences for the rich archeological Dr. Hamdan Taha is an independent in Abud and the historic cores of remains and many cultural heritage researcher and former deputy Nablus and Hebron. A wide range of sites and, most importantly, the minister of the Ministry of Tourism and historical sites in Gaza has suffered cultural landscape of Palestine. The Antiquities (until 2014). He served as repeatedly from Israeli military activity. implemented and the projected Wall the Director General of the Department Furthermore, hundreds of archeological will encircle the Palestinian population of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage from 1995 to 2013. He is the author sites in Area C have been looted and centers, turning them into a series plundered, and there has been an active of a series of books and of many field of disconnected blocks. At the same reports and scholarly articles. illegal trade of cultural properties. time, the 462 Israeli settlements inside the Palestinian areas already control Article photos courtesy of Dr. Hamdan The Separation Wall more than 900 archeological sites Taha. A major threat is caused by the and features. After completing the Separation Wall constructed by Israel in Wall, Israel will control more than the OPT and in and around Jerusalem. 3,500 archeological sites and features, Composed of concrete walls, razor including circa 500 major archeological wire, trenches, and fences, it cuts into sites that constitute a significant part of the West Bank and separates people the Palestinian cultural resources. Removed Roman mosaic pavement from Nablus. 62 63 Furthermore, upon the erection of Improving access to irrigation water in the Barrier, the Israeli authorities did , Qalqilya and Khirbet Jubara are Stories From not permit farmers to enter the large flagship CRDP interventions targeting amounts of diesel needed to operate the agricultural lands of the . underground wells in the area west of the The project was initially categorized as Barrier. At the same time, and to add to humanitarian - subsidy of diesel - and the Field the challenges farmers were facing, the has proven successful in its transition price of diesel increased significantly, to development aid. Regardless of the which affected the farmers’ purchasing difficulties of access they face, the power and even further disrupted their project aims to support the resilience of ability to operate the wells and irrigate farmers, so they can continue to attend their diminishing land. Initially, the to their land, by enhancing their access Swedish NGO We Effect implemented to irrigation water, lowering its cost, and a short-term humanitarian intervention increasing the accessible quantities. that during the summer season reduced This goal was achieved when CRDP Courtesy of the United Nations Development Programme the cost of irrigation water by fifty- partner We Effect implemented the Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP) two percent when it subsidized the project by replacing the deteriorating cost of diesel fuel needed to operate diesel-run pumping systems of three some of the wells in the Seam Zone; underground water wells (two of them in then, support was provided by the the Seam Zone) with new, more efficient New Opportunity Has Emerged! UNDP’s Community Resilience and ones, operated by electricity. After A Abu Azzam is a Palestinian farmer from village in the Development Programme (CRDP). completing most of the rehabilitation , a village near the western border of the “The Community Resilience and processes, the discharge rates of the West Bank. Residents in the area rely on farming and agriculture as their Development Programme (CRDP) three targeted wells increased about main source of income; and Abu Azzam managed to raise and educate his helps farmers in saving on water prices, twofold. This had a great impact on the seven children by working in agriculture. For many years, he succeeded in which means that many farmers are farming activities in the area because looking after his land despite all kinds of hardship, especially as his land now able to come back to their land it decreased the irrigation costs for was at risk of being annexed due to its proximity to the Israeli settlement despite the difficulties of accessibility. farmers, which in turn increased the of Tsur Yigal. But, according to Abu Azzam, everything changed in October I personally now save half on water irrigated area by about two hundred 2002: When the Barrier was built, annexing around thirty dunums (three prices, which means that I can plant dunums (twenty hectares), and hectares) of his land to become an enclave between the Barrier and the and irrigate more of my land,” says enhanced the competitiveness of their Green Line in what is now referred to as the ‘Seam Zone’, Abu Azzam and Abu Azzam. produce. The guava planted in the area many other farmers lost their ability to access their land. This restriction is the best! was partially lifted when Abu Azzam got a special ‘farmer permit in the Seam Zone’ that enabled him to access and look after the land that his family had owned for generations.

Milk and Butter up to five hours a day. But since Khirbet Ar-Rahawa, a Bedouin the Community Resilience and community south of Hebron, did not Development Programme, as part have any electricity, nor does it have of UNDP’s support to marginalized schools. So children had to go to a communities in Area C, has provided nearby village to get an education - Nayfeh with solar panels and a milk due to the lack of electricity, they often churn, not only has the process of could not finish their assignments at making butter decreased to half an home. Nayfeh used to live on her own hour instead of four, her brother and his in Khirbet Ar-Rahawa. She took care family have moved back to the Bedouin of her brother’s one hundred and fifty community in Khirbet Ar-Rahawa. sheep, while he lived with his wife and “Thanks to the project, I see my family children in a nearby village. more,” Nayfeh says. “The kids can Nayfeh used to milk sheep and make study at home after school now that we have solar electricity. I used to have Abu Azzam on his land. Photo by Palestine News & Information Agency, WAFA. butter in a process that can take

64 65 chronic pain in my arms because of the shaking to make butter, but now, no more in the Tana area, Abu Afif has access to communities on four main outputs: pain or shaking”. water right next to his cave. public infrastructure, protection of Throughout the area, Abu Afif has natural resources, income generation, helped in locating tens of ancient and and human rights. The program is abandoned water cisterns that were implemented by the UNDP’s Programme renovated during the lifetime of the of Assistance to the Palestinian People, project. funded by the Swedish, Austrian, and Norwegian governments, and led by the The Community Resilience and Palestinian government. Until this date, Development Programme (CRDP) fifty-two projects in various locations is an umbrella of multi-sector in Area C and East Jerusalem have projects that aim at injecting the been implemented that contributed developmental capital needed for to providing new opportunities and Palestinians’ sustainable development supported the resilience of hundreds through working with partners and of families.

Herd of a CRDP beneficiary in the village of Al Korshan. Abu Khardish’s home was provided with solar panels and a refrigerator. Photo courtesy of Ventura Formicone - @UNDP/PAPP.

Solar panels provided to a family in Al Rashaydah through CRDP. @UNDP/PAPP.

sheep, whereas his wife and nine kids A Cave With A Well reside in the nearby town in order for Tana is a herder community located them to be able to attend school. The in the eastern part of the Nablus family joins him in December during Governorate. The community is located the milking season. Because Abu Afif’s in Area C and considered by the Israeli tent has been demolished many times, army to be a closed military area. Abu he is now living inside a cave. He used Afif is a father of nine and a shepherd to travel a long distance to fetch water with two hundred sheep. He resides for his sheep, but since the UNDP in the Tana hamlet so he can graze renovated the water-harvesting cisterns 66 67 daily life. In front of the house, there The Political are pieces of rock, a pile of concrete In 1997, Israel declared the status blocks, and sparse patches of dry green of unregistered lands as state growth. To the right, a child’s slide is lands on the basis of a distorted Agency of Fallahin angled, its end directed towards the interpretation of the Ottoman hard bedrock. Behind the Concrete Tent Agrarian Law. In Area C, around Architecture: there is a swing, and further to the back, 34% of the lands gained that in the near horizon, there is an Israeli declaration, 30% were declared Unravelling the Conflict of Susiya patrol on the watch. as “military firing zones”, 20% On 4 May 2015, High Court Judge classified as “survey fields”, Noam Solberg rejected a petition for and others designated as “nature an interim order that would freeze the reserves” and “national parks,” implementation of demolition orders which left Palestinians with issued against homes in the village less than 1% for construction - of Khirbet Susiya, a tiny encampment with most of it already built up. By Hania Halabi of tents and shacks. Here, a few Construction in the remaining hundred people are still hanging on to part is only possible with a what is left of their ancestral lands; in permit and within the borders face of the Israeli Civil Administration of an approved master plan. n the dusty hilly terrain to the south of Hebron, on dry which could uproot the entire village However, the Civil Administration bedrock ground where shrubs can barely find a way to of eighty structures at any moment. has rejected most master plan I grow, stands a small house built from concrete blocks. The However, after negotiations with the proposals and declined almost concrete is surrounded by a metal structure that supports representatives of the village, the all building permits, leaving 340 a suspended layer of fabric. It is hard to call it a concrete house, yet final hearing at the Supreme Court peasants and goat-herders in it is not a tent. It is something in-between: a draped house that I will as to whether the Israeli Defence Susiya on the brink of eviction call the “Concrete Tent”. The fabric covers the concrete from all sides Forces could carry out the deed - today. but reveals it at the front. Obviously, at the moment the photograph initially scheduled for August 3 - was was taken, the house was partially undraped and the blue painted postponed given the outrage and door left slightly open. Perhaps someone has just entered inside or escalating tension that followed the left. Their recent presence in the scene is a reminder of an on-going burning of an eighteen-month-old boy in Duma, near Nablus in the West Bank. This continued deferral of a decision Concrete tent. preserves the ambiguous legal context that has allowed the continuation of a trend which caused the inhabitants of this village to be evicted three times in as many decades. The enforced uncertainty brought about by this situation threatens to push Susiya’s case into an open conflict. Today, the whole village lives on the brink of eviction, awaiting a fateful decision from the pending court hearing. The Israeli-Palestinian story of build- and-destroy is not new to the conflict. In Susiya, as is the case in other villages within Area C, this story has been well rehearsed on the claim that Palestinian structures have been built without permits and are thus rendered illegal. In fact, Palestinians living in the area do apply for permits, but almost 68 69 none are ever issued. Thus, the urban fully loaded with political content. The draping-undraping the concrete marks According to the new adopted laws, informality and illegality of structures is hardness of the concrete and softness a flickering at the border between black any piece of land must be cultivated for the consequence of a condition brought of the fabric reveal their expressions and white spaces. However, this is not ten continuous years in order to come about by Israel’s discriminatory policies and political agency. While concrete to say that if the concrete is completely under private ownership. Moreover, that leave Palestinians who need shelter expresses permanence, formality, and concealed, the village lies within the if a land is not cultivated for three with no other alternative but to build illegality; fabric expresses temporality, white space and is safe; neither is it continuous years, it directly comes without permits. informality, and ‘imagined’ legality. to say that exposing it puts the village under the possession of the sovereign. The political geography of urban Although building without permits at the instant threat of destruction. In In the late 1970s, Israel based a large informality has been conceptualised in Area C is prohibited regardless fact, the complex relation at stake is scale topographical-mapping and by Israeli theorist Orel Yiftachel as of the construction materials, fabric regulated by the space in-between the land-registration project on these laws. gray spaces positioned between the tends to be more tolerated by the two materials, which I argue produces It was run by the director of the civil “lightness” of legality, safety, and full Israeli authorities. Thus, the logic a gray zone. The grayness here marks department of the state prosecutor’s membership (white spaces), and the behind veiling the concrete with fabric the shifting and unresolved tension office, Plia Abek, who started her “darkness” of eviction, destruction, and suggests that it is used to exit a regime between state ‘tolerance’ and fallahin work by touring the mountains of the death (black spaces). In the Palestinian- of visibility. It positions fallahin outside strategies for preservation. Israeli context, Yiftachel associates “Gray the gaze of the state authorities by Spacing” with the ethnocratic practices of blurring the figure of a concrete house Israel against the indigenous Palestinian as a demolition target against the in the Negev desert. However, background of the village in conflict. an application of the concept inside The interesting constellation shown the Green Line, as I suggest, can also in the photograph of the Concrete illuminate the urban colonial practices Tent, where the concrete reveals itself of Israel against the Palestinian peasants, from underneath the fabric while an fallahin, in Area C. In this article, I Israeli patrol is standing in the horizon extend my analysis over a spectrum and watching, also suggests that this of scales across which the conflict of practice of the fallahin is not completely Susiya unfolds in an attempt to reveal secretive. It is rather a tactic that allows what delineates the borders of the entire Israel to mobilise tolerance - understood village as a “gray space:” how are these here as a mode of incorporating the borders maintained, and what whitening village’s presence within a system and blackening practices shift them? that refuses to recognise it - within Moreover, what is the role of fallahin as this volatile zone of conflict. The both the planners and architects of the architecture of fallahin becomes a village within these processes? time-management tool for postponing To answer these questions, I base my demolition orders. research on the image of the Concrete The logic of the Concrete Tent’s Tent that begins this article. At first envelope should also be analyzed in glance, the most striking element relation to the broader urban context Susya aerial photograph. in the Concrete Tent is the tension of Susiya. Both the concrete and the between the fabric and the concrete fabric, as I suggest, unfold upon the that together form its envelope, one surface of the earth and play roles in When the space of in-between unfolds West Bank in a helicopter. The project of the most primitive elements in border-making processes. While the upon the surface of the earth, it was undertaken from the air, using architecture. The envelope separates concrete delineates the borders of meets the complex legal pattern of aerial photometry that would by-pass the inside from the outside. Thinking the black space, where practices of Area C inscribed on the ground. An the problems of doing surveys in of it as the border, the frontier, the eviction and destruction take place, understanding of this pattern requires hostile terrains. It aimed to define edge, and the liminal brings about the fabric as a more temporary material drawing back to the late nineteenth and uncultivated lands (which either haven’t the shift that contemporary studies delineates the borders of the white early twentieth centuries, when Israel- been cultivated for three years, or have made in understanding these space, as it allows the state to perform Palestine witnessed a shift from the have been cultivated for less than synonym concepts as complicated, a gesture of tolerance. However, it application of international Belligerent ten years) to which Israel could lay contested territories rather than mere does not eliminate the present threat Occupation Laws (that were based claim. As a result, uncultivated state lines. The envelope, as I argue, is no of destruction and removal. Thus, on different conceptions of security) land existed in a wide range of scales: longer a surface but rather a device the fabric’s act of veiling-unveiling, or to the Ottoman Agrarian Land Laws. from large tracts of desert, to smaller

70 71 Susya’s Legal Ground Pattern - done by Author.

islands of rock puncturing the private I unpacked the agency of fallahin fields of the peasants. The borders architecture in delineating the borders between cultivated Palestinian lands of the spaces they inhabit. The veiling and uncultivated Israeli lands followed of concrete by fabric, as an oppositional a clear topographical logic, but stayed strategy to the Israeli regulations in Area blurry on the ground. The suitable soil C, allowed Israel to utilise tolerance as erodes down from the summits of a vehicle for sustaining life in Susiya. the mountains to the valleys, leaving Moreover, it revealed how Susiya’s the rocky summits to be declared current conflict is rooted in Israel’s as Israeli lands - and the cultivatable adoption of the Ottoman Agrarian valleys for Palestinians. Thus, the gray Land Laws that in turn have allowed space of Susiya is complexified by cultivation to become a colonial tool. the multiplication of internal borders Today, the whole population of Susiya between rocky and cultivated lands that inhabits the threshold of eviction, living are, in fact, borders between Israeli and an open-ended story of build-and- Palestinian jurisdictions. However, on destroy. the ground, the military orders that are Resources applied to Israeli state lands remained in effect for the Palestinian valleys • Eyal Weizman, (2007), Hollow Land, below and between them. Thus, the London: Verso. materiality of the Concrete Tent here • Oren Yiftachel, (2009), “Critical can be understood in relation to the Theory and ‘gray space’: legal pattern of the ground. The harder Mobilization of the colonized”, CITY, the ground, the less cultivable it is; Vol. 13 (Issue 2-3), 246-263. the structure must be softer and less permanent in order to be tolerated. Hania Halabi is an architect and a The architecture of the Concrete Tent, researcher from East Jerusalem as I have proposed in this article, is not who has completed her Masters in a subject of research, but a research Research Architecture at Goldsmiths University of London. tool itself. By analyzing its materiality, 72 Placemaking in the West Bank in Area C

By Asma Ibrahim and Pren Domgjoni

At a site visit in the Abdallah Younis village near . Photo Courtesy of UN-Habitat. lacemaking Placemaking is an approach to urban design that intends to ensure in four out of the fourteen localities, P the creation of valuable qualities within shared spaces based on a considering Placemaking a tool to “bottom-to-top approach.” Most of the time, Placemaking is understood merely quickly and effectively respond to the Placemaking projects are as an urban design. While it is true that urban design is part of Placemaking, there sensitivity of Area C. tools with the tremendous is more to it: Placemaking is about bringing a community together to decide about demonstrative effect to enhance the design and use of a public space that can be a street, or a small or large space Building Communities Around the resilience of marginalized in the village, town, or the city. Placemaking is not only about large-scale projects Places communities in Area C because and large budgets; in other words, it welcomes increased efforts and collaboration the process produces realistic of citizens, professionals, and authorities to design any public place in a way that The process is designed so each party and concrete interventions has meaning. brings with it its particular strength: the that improve the quality of life. community brings the unique insights The Placemaking approach and inspirations that come from living Placemaking in Area C utilizes emotional capital, the in that particular community and “belonging to the land,” and local During the few past decades, Palestinian communities in Area C have fallen victim caring for it, while the professionals financial capital in places where to the political situation, since all decision-making in planning was in the hands of bring technical insights and knowledge marginalized people are living on the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA). Most Area C villages were considered as an of best practice. Through a series agricultural zone in the Mandatory-era regional plans that the ICA utilized, plans that of carefully organized workshops, limited resources and spaces. are inadequate to meet the needs of current populations. Furthermore, the Israeli the participants develop a shared It builds a deep connection occupation has enforced a centralized planning system by eliminating community understanding of the issues, move to between people and their land, participation. As a result, Palestinians have been left with no other choice than an agreed set of priorities (a design since people are encouraged to build without permits - which directly has led to a deterioration of the built agenda), and eventually arrive at a to use and interact with their environment and has lowered the quality of services, infrastructure, and of shared set of design proposals that are not surroundings, to make them places. Moreover, Palestinian communities of Area C have come to suffer from a only realistic and achievable, but also places they truly own. lack of trust in their desire and ability to be a service provider rather than consumer. demonstrably respond to the issues that Realizing the critical situation of Area C, UN-Habitat salutes Placemaking as a key the community agrees are important. activity in a program entitled “Planning Support to the Palestinian Communities Although Placemaking proposals are as in Area C” to improve the resilience of the local Palestinian communities. This diverse and unique as the communities assistance aims to provide effective planning and coordinated advocacy to within which they occur, typically they when circumstances change or Palestinian communities on the one hand, and to enhance Palestinian building share a number of features. They new changes emerge that were not capacity on the other hand. Community-design schemes are developed by the apparent to the community, but are • reconcile local priorities with Placemaking approach that aims to bridge land-use plans with a better approach to known by the professional experts; best practice to ensure that the designing of public places. Thus, UN-Habitat has applied Placemaking to designs interventions continue to be • are designed to meet multiple needs, in fourteen localities throughout Area C of the West Bank and has implemented them relevant and appropriate, even offering something for everyone; 74 75 • require low capital cost and are Placemaking: Pilot Projects in future generations in the long run. The relatively easy to do and maintain Four Localities process took place from March 2014 sustainably by the local community, to January 2015 and was attended by A Placemaking project can be using local skills and materials; The Placemaking projects were the International Peace and Cooperation seen as a journey on which carried out as a series of workshops Center (IPCC). the people of a community • combine practicality with at different localities. They were lead embark together with external attractiveness by offering by Jenny Donovan, an international In 2014, the final designs were professionals to arrive at a opportunities that people choose expert on urban design, landscaping, presented in reports that also covered, shared plan for key spaces in to experience, rather than merely besides the main Placemaking projects, and Placemaking, as well as by a the community. solutions that they have no choice specialized and dedicated local team questions on major infrastructural than be contented with; and of urban planners and designers, engineering proposals that can be • leave a positive legacy of all working hand in hand with local funded and implemented by other drawings of the project were produced empowerment and greater communities. The workshops focused donors. For advocacy and in order in March 2015 that together with the confidence in the performance and on exploring the local context in order to to raise awareness, UN-Habitat reports provided sufficient details to legitimacy of the community within come up with sustainable Placemaking also organized Training of Trainers (TOT). The TOT-workshop aimed allow for reasonably accurate estimates which the interventions occur. interventions that can serve present and to encourage the new generation of of construction costs. Besides, all final Palestinian planners, urban designers, designs use local materials and feature and civil society activists to apply an simple design concepts in order to inclusive, participatory approach in reduce operating and managing costs. developing and designing places. In The final report consisted of the detailed addition, during a public fundraising designs, their estimated costs, and the presentation, donors, NGOs, and detailed specifications. Palestinian ministries received In April 2015, the tendering process information about the results of the started in the four localities and Placemaking approach. On this basis, attracted wide interest: out of many the European Union provided seed applicants, one contractor was selected funds to implement a demonstration of and the implementation phase was Placemaking projects in four different finalized by the end of May 2015. The localities: Imneizil, Ras Al-Wad, local council association has been Abdallah Younis, and Izbet Tabib, as in charge of supervising the work, shown in Figure (1). while UN-Habitat’s role has been to For the implementation of the monitor and support it during the Placemaking interventions, illustrative implementation phase.

Placemaking Workshop. Photo Courtesy of UN-Habitat. 76 77 possible. This approach supports permits. Placemaking projects provide empowerment and self-determination opportunities for people to create and cultivates an increased sense solutions - in a regional context and of ownership over a community’s with local means - by designing surroundings. The interventions: surroundings that meet their needs • improve the environmental and and facilitate for them to thrive and fulfill visual quality (landscaping and tree their potential. planting); Moreover, Placemakers seek to • calm traffic, which includes minimize reliance on financial capital accessible and safe pedestrian to realize plans, but instead give greater connections; weight to a local community’s assets, inspiration, and potential to get things • improve access to economic done. In different words, Placemaking opportunities; and processes emphasize the efficient use • create a meaningful place for citizens. of local resources and seek to ensure that all interventions are designed The outcome of the workshops were to meet multiple local needs. The documented as a Community Design combination of outside experts and a Agenda and then reported to the local agenda allows for best practice to communities, illustrated with drawings be considered at a local level. and key messages as shown in Figure 2. Asma Ibrahim is an architect with a Implementing Projects Through master’s degree in urban planning Community Contracting from Birzeit University. Her master dissertation was about urban Since Placemaking projects are housing qualities at neighborhoods implemented through community of Palestinian cities. She has five contracting – in order to empower years of experience in academic the community - and based on teaching, architectural design, and some regional examples that were urban planning. Asma joined UN- Habitat oPt in December 2013, as an implemented by UN-Habitat, in Ras Urban Planner and designer for the Figure 2 – Ras Al-Wad – Drawn by Jenny Donovan. Al-Wad, the initial idea was to establish supporting of planning in Area C. a community-based organization. However, after assessing the conditions Placemaking in Ras Al-Wad: A the Office of the European Union Pren Domgjoni studied Spatial Planning and the time frame needed to establish Place for Walking, a Place for representative for the West Bank and GIS Application; EU Integration such an organization, it was decided and Law; and Albanian Language Sitting and the Gaza Strip is referring to Placemaking: “Ras Al-Wad is one of to implement this project through the and Literature. From 2007-2014 he Municipality of Za’tara in cooperation Ras Al-Wad is a small village near the thirty-six villages in Area C in which worked as a Spatial Urban Planner with the Village Project Group. The in UN-Habitat, Kosovo, supporting Bethlehem with approximately 500 the European Union is funding an urban contracts were prepared in cooperation Kosovo municipalities throughout the inhabitants. While it is located partially planning process, and one of the four with the Village representatives and process of spatial and urban planning. in Area C, its centre is located in Area villages where we support Placemaking From January 2014-October 2015 B. The Separation Wall separates Ras translated into Arabic. The English interventions. During the Placemaking version was signed by the regional office he worked as Urban Planner Project Al-Wad from the Bethlehem region, process, the entire village is gathering Manager in UN-Habitat, Palestine. He and the locality is therefore detached representative and the Municipality of was responsible for two projects titled in brainstorming activities to discuss Za’tara representatives. from regional integration. Za’tara offers and harvest ideas and images on how “Spatial Planning Support Programme for Palestinian Communities in Area C basic educational and health services to transform the most used public for these localities, which makes of West Bank”. He has experience in spaces in the village into beautiful and Placemaking Interventions and integration necessary to provide spatial spatial and urban planning, sustainable welcoming public places.” Positive Contributions continuity and access to services. development, and disaster risk Through a planning process, this Placemaking focused on the entire Placemaking projects are strong assessment and management. He conducted a research on integration of locality was selected to conduct a village and selected key sites based showcases for other vulnerable Palestinian communities in Area C disaster risk management into spatial Placemaking exercise, and professional on the community’s input. The and urban planning in Japan in 2013. designers, planners, local citizens, and interventions were designed and for non-statuary processes, i.e. they Currently he works for the Japanese authorities designed in three workshops managed to allow the community to can be implemented without the Embassy in Kosovo as Grass Roots a Placemaking project. Paolo Curradi, build these sites themselves, wherever need to obtain explicit construction Project Coordinator for Kosovo.

78 79 As such, The Stonesourcing Space is a permanent, ongoing project that On the Edge presents an on-the-edge process of Originally produced on making architecture in Palestine. It Manger Square in 2013, The visualizes an essential relation to the Stonesourcing Space’s special contested geographical and political features allow the structure to edge of Palestinian reality and reacts to legally persevere in Area C. It architectural concerns – on a research can be viewed on the edge of level as well as on a territorial scale. The Makhrour Valley, near Hosh Stonesourcing Space is strengthened Jasmin, Bethlehem. In August by every on-the-edge situation by 2015 the project was featured at offering immediate tangible solutions. The Voices of Sirens, an exhibition at the Little Constellation Network for Contemporary Art in Gibraltar. Chora Chora in ancient Greek refers to a By Elias and Yousef Anastas definite location that is either occupied or can be occupied by something, denoting a void or a potential. urban regulations that transformed Historically, Palestinian cities have the use of space from appropriation to he edge is where potentialities are revealed: living on the edge, one has been built with a relationship to nature attribution. The territorial restrictions to put into motion everything possible in order to persevere. – to vast expanses of countryside of the Israeli occupation increased the T On the Edge is a story about making architecture in Palestine told landscape. The nucleus of a city, tendency of containing the use of space; through the specific case of The Stonesourcing Space project: A stone pavilion managed by its inhabitants, was and consequently, today the layout of which adapts traditional techniques to the imperatives of resistance within the considered only a small part of the cities is muddled. A physical limit is framework of the Palestinian public space, The Stonesourcing Space is a project city which was defined mainly by imposed by the Separation Wall. These that was designed, fabricated, and implemented in 2013 by Scales, the research its surrounding landscape. The only complex territorial devices transform department of AAU Anastas. The exhibition on Manger Square in Bethlehem was constructions found outside the dense Palestinian cities into territories whose motivated by the urgency of standing up to a misuse of stone and an urbanism nuclei were the manateers, countryside urban spread has a visual horizon that is increasingly taken out of its context in Palestinian cities, while it aims to set shelters used to mark territory and to drawn by the Wall’s path. Additionally, in motion a thinking process that links stone construction techniques to the urban signal property. The in order to protect one’s land, one morphology of Palestinian cities. The Stonesourcing Space intends to foster a and the British Mandate introduced must prove that it is inhabited. Thus, strategic awareness for new visions of urban morphologies.

The Stonesourcing Space invests the Nativity Square in Bethlehem as an installation whose aim is to reinvigorate public space.

The Stonesourcing Space at Wadi Makhrour,snow storm, 2014.. 80 81 five tons, but it has no roof. Thus, it is as unmeasured, occurring at the indestructible – at least according to the intersection of natural events and political meaning of space use and due human wisdom, and defined by the to the law of the roof. opportunity that this moment carries. Let us explain: In 1993 the Oslo Construction started on a hot summer accords divided the West Bank into day in August after the wedding of three areas, each with a different Abu Awwad’s daughter. Although all status that denotes the amount of documents had been ready in mid-July, self-government Palestinians are most stone factories in the region of allowed to exert through the Palestinian Bethlehem had refused to cut the 859 Authority. This situation was intended stones, mainly because it broke the to be temporary, until a Final Status production rhythm of the standardized Agreement would be established in stone products, usually the size of 2,3 1999. Area A includes eight Palestinian or 5cm. However Abu Awwad’s stone cities and their surrounding areas business, whose backyard has been

All design simulation procedures were unveiled on the public space as open-source material. the temptation of the urban filling of to the need of land consumption in an enclave is a natural reaction and times of war and to mark property Palestinian cities have adopted a new as an act of resistance to the Wall’s scale: less defined, less dense, less path. Since the city’s limit has been concentrated, and their construction erased over time through numerous, spreads without a real master plan. often unfathomable political separation Through change in the use of space, policies, The Stonesourcing Space a shift has taken place, moving from a goes beyond the power-driven practice dense urbanism emptying its landscape of dominating space and puts back The Stonesourcing Space overlooks road 60. The Stonesourcing Space adapts the historical function surroundings to the temptation of filling nature as part of the urbanism process. of a muntar to the current imperatives of resistance. up the space on the cities’ edges. The city extends to the limit beyond (Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem, Qalqilya, cut in two parts by the Separation Wall, Since all geographical spaces on which any going further would be Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jericho and did accept the challenge. His family the edges of Palestinian cities are topographically destroying nature: the eighty percent of Hebron), exempting has been in the stone craftsmanship threatened by expropriation, The edge of the valley. Israeli settlements. Entry into this area for several generations, and he was Stonesourcing Space is implemented From a viewpoint that considers is forbidden to all Israeli citizens. Area supportive of standing up to the recent in Wadi Makhrour, at the western limit political context, The Stonesourcing B is under Palestinian civil control misuse and standardization of stone. of Bethlehem, in the same way in which Space is implemented on a territory and joint Israeli-Palestinian security the ancient manateers had the function that features an exhaustive sample On a Saturday afternoon, drinking control. Area C is under full Israeli civil of alerting wayfarers to the fact that a of the space-related complexities that Arabic coffee in his workshop, Abu and security control. Seventy percent piece of land was privately owned. Wadi exist in Palestine: it overlooks road Awwad promised to deliver the stones of this area is defined as within settler Makhrour is situated in Area C, defined 60 – used by settlers to commute – all of them – next Tuesday, adding municipal boundaries where permits for by the Oslo Accords as Palestinian from settlements to Jerusalem; it is that he could not deliver them earlier development are denied to Palestinians. property, yet under Israeli control – located on a hill under which road 60 because his daughter’s wedding was Constructions are only accepted if they and as such it is constantly threatened becomes a tunnel; it is only a twenty- on Monday. We had found a partner have neither roof nor foundations. The by colonization and expropriation. All minute walking distance away from who was at least as convinced as Stonesourcing Space does not have a constructions on the geographical the city center of ; it shares we were of the necessity of rebelling roof – and yet it weighs more than 5 edge of Bethlehem are categorically the valley with the Palestinian city of against the current use of stone! tons of stone! forbidden. , inscribed on the UNESCO World However, for Abu Awwad it was also a Heritage list; and it is overlooked by Har way of paying a tribute to his ancestors Without spoiling the landscape or Kairos and their love of stone. condemning the city’s development on Gilo, a settlement located on the highest a long term basis, The Stonesourcing hill in the area. The Stonesourcing Kairos in ancient Greek refers to The misuse of stone is not typical or Space’s goal is to provide an answer Space is built from stones that weigh an instant of time, experienced methodological: stone cladding is used

82 83 The Stonesourcing Space addresses the question of public space in the city of Bethlehem. The stone structure takes a rebellious stand against current construction techniques and poor intellectual research investment in the only locally-available independent and abundant Palestinian construction material. As a place where expression, debate, and innovation are possible, public space is both the locus of counter powers and the necessary binder of Abu Awad cut the 859 stones in two days. Friday - 3 am - when Area C sleeps. the state. It is the meeting place of architects, engineers, mayors, citizens, bricklayers, historians, and many more. in the whole world. But in Palestine landscape and, on a long term basis, authorities. On a Friday night, we knew And while in the past public space was stone use is particularly misused due to even to merge with it. Just as manateers we would avoid the latter difficulty – at inherent to Palestinian urbanism, under a neglect of our heritage of construction became an essential part of Palestinian least until the next day. modern circumstances there has been methods, a heritage built over time. landscape, The Stonesourcing Space a clear break-off with public space. The Stonesourcing Space stands for a Unfortunately, in the last century, stone- mixes material use and morphology Techne construction know-how didn’t evolve. with the goal of bringing back nature reconciliation of Palestinians with their Our generation may be the one who will as a criterion for urbanism. Techne in ancient Greek, refers to public spaces. completely forget those techniques – or craftsmanship. Urbanism is a way of The Stonesourcing Space on Manger crafting the citizens of a community. it may not. Kinesis Square aimed to embody urban social Not only does The Stonesourcing Before and during the Ottoman Empire, power and artisanal skills and to help Kinesis in ancient Greek refers to urban development was influenced by build an inclusive city. Space stand up to the disappearance of motion. historical know-how, it aims at enriching three factors: harat (’big families’ to it by introducing new construction After its construction and exhibition which every inhabitant was linked), Yousef Anastas is an architect and techniques based on novel design on Manger Square, The Stonesourcing hosh (a common shared space in engineer, principal at AAU ANASTAS. simulation and fabrication processes. Space had to move. On moving day the heart of a series of houses), and He is currently leading AAU Anastas’ Although on the edge of vanishing, the square was crowded and bets were the typical city surroundings of olive research department, SCALES, a some aspects of stone construction on: will the pavilion be successfully orchards and terraced landscapes. research laboratory that aims to heritage remain profoundly settled dismantled or not. Abu Wadi’, the best- At that time, urban strategies were consistently link together scales that in Palestinian culture. Palestinian known trailer driver was on the square; regulated between the moukhtar are otherwise opposed. quarries refuse to use bad quality stone, his entire reputation was at stake. But (chiefs) of each hara. This self- He is a co-founder of Local Industries almost by arrogance, even though taking the pavilion from the square was managed urbanism, whose successful and can be reached at yousef@ mediocre quality stone blocks – i.e. the easy task. Moving it to Makhrour operation would fulfil many of today’s aauanastas.com. poor mechanical properties – satisfy Valley was difficult, and implementing western criteria of a successful city, has www.aauanastas.com, www. the requirements for stone cladding it in Area C seemed impossible. progressively been disappearing. The localindustries.org. construction as used today in all On a Friday evening the pavilion was dense nucleus is no longer as much a buildings. Instead, they only accept the dismantled. A special convoy was center of interest as the surroundings Elias Anastas is an architect, principal blocks with the best characteristics, organized to move from Manger Square where cities boom. Palestinian cities at AAU ANASTAS. today have very complex boundaries. leaving the mediocre quality to the Israeli to Makhrour Valley: the trailer was He is a co-founder of Local Industries, market. In Palestinian imagination, time preceded and followed by municipal The British mandate put in place urban a project born from the desire to has inscribed a trace of what stone police cars and didn’t exceed 15 km/h planning. Power rather than nature put direct collaboration with local must be, a trace that even occupation in speed. There were difficulties of took precedence and in response, artisans at the heart of the process cannot destroy. topography to overcome in reaching Palestinian cities have broken with and to look for ways to minimize energy the western limit of Bethlehem, their domestic scale. Their boundaries consumption for the creation and The Stonesourcing Space intends production of industrial design. Elias passing through 800 m of declivity, are being dictated by the Separation to be part of the existing landscape. Wall, and the unstable political situation can be reached at elias@aauanastas. The durability of the material and and additional difficulties in settling com. www.aauanastas.com, www. down the pavilion in Area C, where all is leading to a lack of trust in public its resistance to climate influences space. localindustries.org. increase its ability to adapt to the construction is forbidden by the Israeli 84 85 Let’s take Kufer Aqab as our first case in this piece. Kufer Aqab is an Jerusalem Suburbs: I will not educate about, political/ eccentric place to live in. Part of it environmental/educational/ is under the Palestinian Government health/gender/youth statues of Lost and Forgotten? and the other part is under the Israeli Jerusalem Suburbs. I want to Jerusalem Municipality. At this point, tell a human story. I want to some legitimate questions might be highlight the daily struggle of asked: being a citizen/resident of the Who provides services to citizens? - I Jerusalem Suburbs. I want to don’t know. highlight the daily struggles of Who licenses the tall residential people, not just people passing buildings you see on your way to through and AlKassarat, Ramallah? - No one I know of. but people actually living there. Who makes sure these buildings are By Rasha Alyatim safe and have proper infrastructure? - I am still looking for the responsible agency for that.

The Separation Wall cutting through Al-Ram main street. h, I am sure you know about Areas A, B, and C. I do not O doubt you know of the daily applications of this labeling. Who doesn’t know about Qalandia checkpoint? I am quite positive you know the shortcut, better known as Kassarat. Undoubtedly, you have passed the famous Kufer Aqab traffic light. Did you use an expletive? Or have you stopped yourself just in time? I have no hard data, but I don’t know any Palestinian who sings a happy tune on his way into Ramallah - using Qalandia checkpoint and Semiramis Street. I do know a number of people who try to avoid Qalandia checkpoint at any cost. So while you try to avoid that street as much as possible, I am asking you to allow me to give you a new perspective on things. Let me take you on a journey along the Ramallah-Al-Quds road - a journey that will not take you to Ramallah at all, but to several stops along the road: to villages and cities that are called the Jerusalem Suburbs. I don’t read minds, but I have a feeling you never pause to think of what it is like to live there. In this piece, I want to tell you what it is like. I want to tell you stories of people living there and of their daily struggles to achieve what others (non-citizens of the Jerusalem Suburbs) take for granted.

86 87 projects in densely populated cities, for is surrounded by the Wall. The main wider impact. Funding agencies rely entrance to Jaba’ is through Al-Ram, on PCBS numbers. Kufer Aqab with an because its own main entrance was official population of 20,000 will not win closed down by the Israelis several against a city with an official population years ago. Once, on the Facebook of 80,000. group for Jaba’, the question was A fourth implication is something posted, “What do you think is the as basic as numbers: of schools, most important project for Jaba’?” pharmacies, or health care clinics. The majority asked for streetlights. The Once, a pharmacist told me this mayor of Jaba’ has been working very story: the Pharmacists Association hard to get streetlights; he says it will be licenses one pharmacy for every 4,000 his proudest moment.

A usual sight when a waste water network is blocked.

Where do children go to play safely, to is only one municipality in the capital a park or a playground? - To the streets. city: the Jerusalem Municipality. Other What do citizens do as recreational localities are governed by a village activities? - Stay away from trouble. council or a local council. Because a Palestinian village council is not How many people live in Kufer Aqab allocated the same amount of resources anyways? (human, capital, and financial) as a Ah, here is the question to which I know municipal council, Kufer Aqab’s council the answer: Kufer Aqab’s population is has a total of ten employees. The Kufer Aqab and the settlement behind it. Adding insult to injury; uncollected garbage and the not officially registered. The Palestinian village mayorship is a non-paying job; Separation Wall. Central Bureau of Statistics estimates so generally, the mayor of Kufer Aqab its population to be around 18,000- has to have an income-generating job residents. Therefore, and according Kufer Aqab and Jaba’ may vary widely in 20,000 people. Its village council or business because being a mayor to official numbers, Kufer Aqab has terms of population numbers, but as all estimates it to be around 80,000 “doesn’t feed bread.” The current mayor reached its capacity of pharmacies twenty-eight localities in the Jerusalem people. Why this discrepancy? Because has a private business and only comes and no licenses are being given to Suburbs, they face very common first, Palestinians with a Jerusalem ID to the council on his day off work. I don’t open new pharmacies. In reality, there issues. The most important of them is did not declare themselves to the PCBS blame him, of course, but I ask: is it is a real need for pharmacies in Kufer security. The Jerusalem Suburbs, unlike during the 2007 census; second, in possible to run a city of 80,000 citizens Aqab. Unlicensed pharmacies started neighboring Al-Bireh or Ramallah, lack the last five years, Palestinians holding with ten employees and a mayor who to open in the city - and some of them a Palestinian police force to serve and Jerusalem IDs moved en masse into comes in only once a week? sell not just medication, but also drugs protect citizens. Consequently, outlaws the tall residential buildings in Kufer With a village council, Kufer Aqab and all sorts of things - with no one to find the Suburbs to be their favorite spot Aqab because it is cheaper than living also has no executive powers to take hold them accountable. to hide. Take a moment to chat with any in Jerusalem - but they get to keep their any legal actions against wrongdoers, The sadder part of the story is that the local citizen, and she will tell you how Jerusalem ID. So they weren’t counted like the owners of the tall residential case of Kufer Aqab does not stand alone her locality has become a popular spot in the 2007 census. buildings who build without licensing. but is mirrored in other localities in the for drug dealers and wrongdoers. You What are the implications of Once, Abu Jabber from the Kufer Aqab Jerusalem Suburbs as well. A similar will start thinking “That cannot happen this population discrepancy? The village council looked at me and said: “I population discrepancy is exemplified in here in Palestine.” implications are bountiful, to be honest. feel like my hands are tied all the time. Al-Ram and in ‘Anata. Al-Ram’s official Now, can you imagine yourself living in For one, under the Palestinian local Citizens ask us to accomplish tasks that number of residents is 18,000 and its the Jerusalem Suburbs? governance structure, Kufer Aqab has a are reasonable and sensible. But as a real number is 60,000, while ‘Anata’s village council. For reasons I will not go village council, it is beyond us.” numbers are 7,000 and 20,000. Rasha Alyatim is not a resident of the into right now - or judge, the Palestinian Another implication has to do with On your way in or out of Ramallah, you Jerusalem Suburbs, but she has been Government set up a special local infrastructure and development working there since 2009 in civic will surly pass Kufer Aqab, Al-Ram, engagement projects. governing structure in the Jerusalem projects; an international funding and ‘Anata. You will also pass smaller Governorate. In this governorate, there agency is far more interested in doing localities like and Jaba’. Hizma Article photos courtesy of the ARIJ. 88 89 After Oslo, the limits between different areas - A, B, C - in the West Bank THE C-WORD were demarcated by yellow and gray concrete blocks. These blocks have fallen into disuse now, merely serving “Area C is the purgatory of as reminders of the strange few years Palestine, a place where the road between Oslo and the . map of colonization is being laid In Bethlehem, where I come from, you out for all to see. A wonderland don’t need those blocks to let you of injustice, it is at times horrific know you’ve stumbled from Area A to and - at times - magical. It has Area C at night. You just need to listen become the space where Israel carefully to the howling of dogs. Area dumps the unwanted bodies Canine indeed, Area C is run over by that do not fit within its lopsided stray dogs every night. utopia.” There is a mystery in Palestine I have By Karim Kattan yet to solve. Everyone who’s ever driven from the north to the south has

lthough everyone in Palestine fancies himself a political analyst, I would not dare to try to define Area C. Such a A definition is a job for someone specializing in the arcana of the Oslo Accords. All I know is that Area C is a name given to certain expanses of land in the country where I live. These expanses of land are under heavy restrictions for Palestinians; and sometimes it seems that all of Palestine is an Area C. As spaces go, Area C is weird. It is a mystery, a non-zone caught in a state of uncertainty. At stake in these areas are the control of natural resources, the free use of Palestinian land, the building of settlements, and the slow destruction of whatever is left of the integrity of Palestine. French philosopher Michel Foucault created the concept of heterotopia, which he uses to describe spaces that are ‘parallel’ because these spaces contain undesirable bodies. Area C is a place where Israel can ‘dump’ unwanted Palestinian bodies. Unwanted Israeli bodies are dumped there as well: settlers are the crux of colonization, but Israel does not really like them. They are used as willing cannon fodder in Area C, but I doubt the upper-class society in West Jerusalem would welcome a settler in its midst. Defined by a transience of form, Area C is indeed a weird space: you never know if it is standing still or being annexed. Lands in Area C are always on the verge of disappearing. In a way, Area C does not even exist; it is the purgatory of Palestine, where lands are in waiting until they are annexed. Natural Landscape in Izbet Tabib Village, Qalqilya. Area C is not a real space: it is merely the road map of colonization. 2. probably faced the same enigma. The dogs are on excellent terms, barely ‘Container’ (yet another convenient moving out of the way when Palestinian When thinking about a title for this article, I toyed with different iterations C-word) is a checkpoint located east of cars cross over. Every time I cross the of the same – ‘Area Crap,’ ‘Area Canine’ - all ways of suggesting that , at the tail end of Wadi Nar. That Container I feel the same unease, as if Area C is really, truly, undoubtedly, the crappy end of a really crappy specific check-point is empty, most of I had walked into an alternate reality, deal. But I’m pretty sure everyone knows that today. Area C has come the time, save for a few bored soldiers a parallel Palestine, where dogs rule to represent the many ways in which Oslo has failed us. and stray dogs. The soldiers and the the land. 90 91 This has come to represent Area C from the eyes of society. There, in to me: dogs and soldiers in what the darkness, boys are boys, and is de facto a no-man’s-land. But girls are most certainly girls. I live in despite its being the road map Area C. At night, car after car of what of our disappearance, despite I assume are young couples drive up the uncontainable sprawling of and down our street, living out bits settlements and the multiplication and pieces of their lives far from the of land annexations, despite the way public eye. Heterotopias, as defined dogs and soldiers seem to spawn out by Foucault, are also places where of the darkness of Area C, Palestinians coming of age rituals take place: some have found alternative uses to this of the naughtier rituals often take place elusive land. in Area C. If you’ve ever driven with a Palestinian, 3. you must have noticed some strange mannerisms. For instance, he puts It is hard to define what exactly Area C on his seatbelt as soon as he enters is. The singular is misleading: Area C Area C; and the second he’s crossed covers a diverse range of realities, all over to Area A, like clockwork, he’ll of which have in common that Israel remove the seatbelt as if it were a has set its eyes on them and, by dint scorching reminder of the humiliations of bogus negotiations, is managing of the occupation. Because in some to annex them. Over the years, these parts of Area C the military is on the areas have morphed into a strange loose, we have come to associate it monster with multiple limbs and a with a certain form of law, or rather few too many genetic malformations. with a space in which there is no In Macbeth - as in most of possible negotiation with the law, Shakespeare’s tragedies - the land where the law is unfair and blind changes, morphs, and bemoans and illegitimate. Area C is where we the loss of its legitimate leader. As are most vulnerable, where what Macbeth takes over, the very face passes for justice is a masquerade, of the land changes; nature itself is a nightmarish carnival. Removing unhinged and bares its teeth when one’s seatbelt is an insignificant faced with an unlawful prince. The act. Seatbelts are not agents of the land rebels when an impostor holds occupation. But the act itself is a way sway over it - because the ruler and of navigating one’s lack of freedom. the land are one. People in general will remove their seatbelts once they have reached Let us transpose this to another a place that is considered safe: context: here, in Palestine, the people Palestinians remove them when they and the land are one. Area C is the have safely left the unpredictable, physical manifestation of all that is shifting sands of Area C. wrong in our country; and as long as things stay as they are, Area C But Area C is also the space of another will remain a weird wonderland of type of carnival, a more positive injustice and insanity, a testimony to one perhaps. In Bethlehem and in the twisted process through which we Ramallah - I’m not sure about other are made to disappear. cities - Area C is not just the reminder of the crappy end of the crappy deal. It is the kingdom of darkness. The “Karim Kattan is a French-Palestinian PhD student in comparative literature. roads are rarely lit. People seldom In the summer of 2014, he founded go there after dark. Area C, therefore, el-Atlal, an international artists’ and is where you go to get some peace writers’ residency in Jericho. Karim and quiet. It is where you go to hide lives between France and Palestine.”

92 94 95 AMALLAH and AL-BIREH

96 97 98 99 This special issue on Area C would not have been possible without the generous contribution of UN-Habitat Palestine Programme, and UNDP’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People. As part of interim agreements concluded between the PLO and Israel in 1993, the 1995 Interim Agreement divided the West Bank into areas A, B, and C, essentially to facilitate the transfer of authority to the Palestinian side. The interim agreements were meant to last for five years! Both co-sponsors have also contributed invaluable articles that not only shed light on the geography, the people, and the projects taking place in Area C, but also demonstrate the utmost importance of Area C to the economy and viability of any future Palestinian state.

This Week in Palestine is grateful to UN-Habitat and to the UNDP for making this issue a reality.

The Dead Sea. Photo from Palestine Image Bank.