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How much did you pay for this plot of
land?
Land Value in Ramallah and East
Jerusalem
By Oliver Clemens and Sabine Horlitz from An Arkhitektur, Berlin.
(This work was developed in conjunction with the international cultural
project "liminal spaces", that was curated by Eyal Danon,
Galit Eilat, Reem Fadda and Philipp Misselwitz)
A one dunam (1000 square meters) plot of land in the center of Ramallah
costs up to $8 million; the same plot costs $300,000 in an upper-class
residential area; near the settlement of Psagot, by contrast, a one-dunam
plot costs only $30,000, while a dunam of land inside Zone C is available
for $3,000. Through such an analysis of land value, political conditions,
conflicts, social expectations and hopes all come to the fore. Land
prices in the West Bank rose steeply following the Oslo Accords, as
a Palestinian state seemed suddenly to be within reach. Exiled Palestinians
moved back to the territories and invested in real estate. These investments
gave rise to neighborhoods of American-style villas and to shopping
centers, which have little in common with the image of Palestine in
the European media.
The existing landscape, however, is not shaped by capitalist promises
alone; the occupation, the classification of the West Bank into different
zones, the building of the separation wall and the struggle over the
land have all let their marks upon the terrain. Safety zones surround
settlement roads, and checkpoints that have been set up between villages
cut through residential neighborhoods. The territorial conflict has
resulted in the fragmentation of space, and spatial proximity is no
longer a criterion for accessibility.
The efforts exerted by the occupying power to control the space and
its inhabitants; the movement constraints imposed upon them; the restrictive
residency policy; and the rampant capitalist attempts to utilize the
land have led to the creation of a complex and fragmented spatial
structure. An analysis of land value can provide information about
the operation of these forces – for it is they, rather than
the condition of the plot, or its agricultural or real estate potential
– that determine its value. An examination of this topic also
raises the question of whether land value in the West Bank can be
regarded as an objective parameter, given that it follows a distinct
and rapidly changing logic. Land value depends on the zoning created
in the context of the Oslo Accords, on the distance of a given plot
from military zones and from Jewish settlements, and on its accessibility
in relation to various checkpoints. In Ramallah, one can find exorbitantly
expensive areas adjacent to waqf land that cannot be sold and to illegally
rented houses in the refugee camps. In East Jerusalem, prices are
skyrocketing because of Israeli residency regulations, while land
in the city of Al Ram, which is now is cut off from Jerusalem by the
separation wall, has become devalued. In the settlements, due to the
expropriation of Palestinian land on the one hand and to state subsidies
on the other, one can hardly talk about the actual value of the land.
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