Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Grand and glorious collaboration

"The reconfiguration was not restricted to the Ramallah muqata alone. The PA is now redesigning its administrative buildings throughout the West Bank and pursuing a much broader spatial transformation. As Israel solidified a system of fragmented Palestinian bantustans – surrounded by a growing network of Jewish colonies that are linked together by Jewish-only roads – the PA began transforming the spatial and physical territoriality of cantons like Ramallah by constructing new buildings and the infrastructure of a “modern state.”
An official involved in the project of rebuilding the muqata in Ramallah describes it as the PA’s attempt to build an image of “grandeur that creates the impression that we have a state.” Explaining their rationale, he continues: “We can look, act, believe, and walk like a proper state. Alongside building the institutions and economic policies for a state, we can also build the pillars of state, including a presidential palace.”" (thanks Dana)