Peace Entrenched

Planning for a Palestinian State Should Not Await a Final Settlement

Infrastructure: An Arc of Roads, Rails, and Other Trails

Palestine’s infrastructure, inadequate even for current needs, will soon be called upon to support perhaps twice as many people. The population of the West Bank and Gaza, now at 3.6 million people, could grow to about 6.6 million by 2020 (see Figure 11).

The model for growth should be a compact and sustainable urban form and not an unbounded sprawl.

Population density in Palestine already places it near the top of the world’s densest nations. In 2020, its density is expected to exceed even that of Bangladesh (see Figure 12). Therefore, the model for growth should be a compact and sustainable urban form and not an unbounded sprawl.

The key to a successful Palestinian state could lie within its own topography. The West Bank is divided down the middle by a curving north-south line, or “arc,” of mountain ridges. Because rainfall is much higher on the western side, people and agriculture have concentrated there for millennia. The ridgeline is the natural unifying component of a Palestinian state (see Figure 13).

Economic development requires the creation of rapid north-south transportation links for goods and people, both in the West Bank and between the West Bank and Gaza. Combining the need for a north-south link plus the opportunity afforded by the north-south topography creates the prospect for a major new project parallel to the ridgeline. Construction of a transportation line, including a railroad and toll road, along the ridgeline would encourage concurrent construction of parallel lines for electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, and water. A national linear park could weave back and forth across the line as influenced by the landscape (see Figure 14).

The full ensemble, “the Arc,” could have great symbolic power for the new nation. Construction of just the railroad, toll road, and privately funded housing around the transit lines would also employ between 100,000 and 160,000 Palestinians per year over a five-year span.

The researchers assumed that Gaza would be the site of an international airport as well as an international seaport connecting Palestine to the rest of the world. The Arc’s rail and road links would provide rapid access for people and freight to and from the ports for all parts of Palestine. The rail line would link almost all of the primary cities of Gaza and the West Bank in just over 90 minutes (see Figure 15).