Temple Professor Aims To Solve Middle East Problems
By Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Solving problems in the Middle East has never been a simple prospect, but that's the goal for a Temple University professor who's heading to Gaza and the West Bank Friday, leading a team of urban planners.
Water, electricity, sewer service...."without them, you're really limited in terms of urban revitalization or even rural revitalization," says Jeffrey Featherstone.
That's the case in the West Bank, he says:
"The goal is in large part to help these Palestinian communities improve their lot."
The director of the Center for Sustainable Communities at Temple blames the patchwork administration in the territory -- the Israeli government is in charge of some things; the Palestinian Authority, others:
"That's a big challenge."
The eleven infrastructure experts also will travel to the Gaza Strip.
"That area's been more conflict-ridden," says Featherstone. "Most of the water and sewer infrastructure has been in parts destroyed because all of the hostilities in the region. So a lot of the systems simply don't work in Gaza."
The team, part of the International Society of City and Regional Planners in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlements and Development programs, will hear from residents and business owners and advise the UN on what to do. It isn't about politics, but when it comes to the Israelis and Palestinians, everything is.
"I'm sure when we're done, the people who receive these reports -- the two governments as well as the UN -- will debate probably even the tenses of some of the verbs," says Featherstone. "I expect all of that. But our job is to go over there and take a look at the issues from a planning perspective and present our best ideas for how to make things better for the people that live there."
