One of the major problems facing the Palestinians is that they lack adequate housing and infrastructures throughout the land under discussion for Israeli withdrawal. While some Palestinians live in modern, comfortable homes and apartments, the vast majority live in the equivalent of shanty towns. Construction of homes for Palestinians by Palestinians are thwarted by a combination of lack of money going to building homes due to corruption and bureaucratic snafus as well as Israel's insistence upon requiring permits for construction of homes anywhere in Israel or Israeli-controlled land.
Israel has become quite adept in constructing housing projects using loans from the US and elsewhere without the apparent corruption present in the Palestinian Authority that has not been able to meet the needs of its people. Therefore to ease several major problems including security of Israeli citizens living in the West Bank, giving land to the Palestinians and consolidating the land controlled by Israel and the Palestinians, the following idea should be considered:
This bypasses the problem of accountability for funds that has plagued the Palestinian Authority and links the issues of housing to security on the West Bank as well as gives both Israel and the Palestinian Authority the ability to slowly dismantle the Israeli infrastructure in the West Bank without causing extreme hardships to Israelis or Palestinians while giving the Palestinians a new source of housing. While some might argue that this plan only creates more housing for Israelis and this housing could be diverted so that new Israelis get homes and West Bank Israelis are not moved, a mechanism could be set up that ensures that only people from the West Bank are relocated to this new housing.
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