[10] By 2014, 650 family apartments housing an estimated 3,000 people[11] had been completed and sold, but could not be occupied[5] while negotiations over supplying the city with water stalled.

[22] On a clear day, it is possible to see the Mediterranean Sea, 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the west,[21] and the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv from the site.

[28] The Washington Post reports that Rawabi "is specifically designed for upwardly mobile families of a sort that in the United States might gravitate to places such as Reston, VA.

The developments are also relying on another American import, the home mortgage, including creation of a Fannie Mae-style institution for the West Bank".

[35] The total cost of the development, mostly funded by the Qatari company LDR and Masri, a native of Nablus[15] and Palestinian multimillionaire, is estimated at US$850 million.

[37] According to The Rawabi economic growth strategy, from 3,000 to 5,000 new jobs in "knowledge economy" industries including information technology, pharmaceuticals and health care would result from its development.

The first study to develop a master plan for Rawabi's ICT infrastructure and services was won by American management consultancy company Decision/Analysis Partners LLC of Fairfax, Virginia.

[40] Previously, United States Senator John Kerry visited the construction site on 28 February along with Rubenstein and David Harden, senior advisor to the American special envoy to the Middle East, George J.

[41] In 2009 the Palestinian Authority undertook to provide $150 million to cover infrastructural costs for power, water, sewerage, schools and roads, but failed to honour its promise.

[33] The development faced a financial crunch in 2014 due to a cash flow crisis when Masri was unable to collect $70 million from homeowners and mortgage banks for the first batch of 600 apartments, because they cannot be delivered until the access road, and a water supply, are given Israeli permits.

[2][33] The residential areas will surround a city centre that includes banks, shops, petrol stations, offices, eight schools, playgrounds, walking trails, two mosques, a Greek Orthodox[33] church, a hospital, hotel, a seven-screen cinema and numerous other arts venues, in a central piazza lined with arcades and cafes.

[2] Lisa Goldman, director of the Israel-Palestine Initiative at New America, argues that the project draw attention from the ongoing issues of military occupation, and notes that the home-buyers are middle-class couples earning 20 times more than the average Palestinian income.

[2] Only in January 2012 was a single access road for trucks approved by Israeli authorities,[53] shortly before a visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The 600,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank are serviced with 6 times the quantity of water allocated to the area's 2.7 million Palestinians.

[5] Political infighting, with wrangling over whether or not, it was necessary to convene a joint Palestinian-Israeli commission to authorize the final linkage to water, became a key sticking-point.

[11] For some years Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon placed as a condition for connecting the city to the Mekorot company, that the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee be convened to issue permits, not only to Rawabi but also to Israeli settlements, a proposal opposed by the Palestinian Authority, which has refused to convene the Committee since 2010 to avoid supplying Palestinian legitimisation of Israel's settlements in the West Bank.

[8] Tony Blair, head of the Quartet on the Middle East, who, together with Barack Obama has raised the issue of Israel's failure to supply Rawabi with water connections, has sided with the Palestinians this issue, stating that they have reason to refuse to supply settlements with water in so far as settlements are a key plank in peace negotiations.

The decision was confirmed by Major General Yoav Mordechai, coordinator of Israeli government activities in the Palestinian territories,[12] but the link was further delayed when the Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water, Silvan Shalom, the subject of a fierce letter-writing campaign from Israel's far-right settler lobby,[57] postponed the decision,[8] insisting that due authorization was required from the Joint Israeli-Palestinian Water Committee.

[57] The deadlock was broken on 26 February when Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overruled objections and gave the go ahead for linkage.

[61][62] Asked whether Jews could purchase apartments in Rawabi, al-Masri responded that home-buyers must get permission from the Palestinian Authority, a procedure that can take up to six months.

[14] William Booth, a writer and bureau chief for the Washington Post, has stated that Rawabi is the counternarrative in the forever conflict in which Palestinians are often portrayed as terrorist or victim, living in refugee camps or dusty villages out of biblical times.

[11] Yousef Munayyer has stated that,"(t)he project creates this illusion that there is this happy space in Palestine that is independent of the military occupation which governs many aspects of Palestinian life.