Arab towns vs Israeli settlements

You don't need signs to distinguish and Arab town from an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Each reflects the respective cultures and priorities. When Arabs build their homes, they do so as individual families. There are no suburban developers that build a plan and then sell the homes. Arabs build their own homes the way they wnat them to be and they do so usually on the hill slopes and in the valleys with two major points of consideration: 1. wherever the home is to be built, it is nestled into the landscape with a real respect for the integrity and shape of the natural surroundings; and 2. the homes are built on the basis of being the family home of several generations; so, the foundation is deep, the space as big as one can afford, and the roofs are flat to accommodate the building of additional levels as the family grows and finances allow. The end result is that every home is unique, with several generations living together, and roads laid according to a social and familial logic and that rise and fall as the hills rise and fall. Here are some examples.



Israeli settlements are very different, built by developers [government] and sold with a different set of priorities. They are usually built on hilltops with two priorities: 1. to have a strategic military advantage in the area; and 2. To build as many units as possible on as much land as the available money will allow. The hills are thus carved in terrible ways to create large stretches of flat surface, upon which very small row homes are set close together in perfect symmetry and separated by roads arranged in grids and suburban planning logic. Their roofs are always red, giving the impression of some sort of earth infection!

BTW, the pictures of Arab towns here were taken from Jenin yesterday. I just didn't have time to post much more last night and this morning I left early. Just one more picture below of the Wall in Jenin. It cuts beyond the Green Line [unlike popular belief] and actually separates the homes of two brothers who used to be neighbors. It also cut a school in half, with a brand new playground now on the Israeli side.