Building a new narrative amidst the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Rawabi Project

The seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict has ebbed and flowed for nearly 100 years. Over the decades, the various parties have crafted narratives to explain their view of the events and to define their identity relative to the other. One particularly powerful identity-focused Palestinian narrative is that as victims lacking agency for their own self-determination. Now, a private-venture initiative in the Palestinian West Bank is effectively altering that narrative. The project is the city of Rawabi, This study sought to discern how individuals associated with Rawabi construct stories to create an overarching narrative about the project’s impact on Palestinian identity. Findings from the interviews are presented and the implications of the stories are discussed to create a new Palestinian narrative.