Leaving our luxury hotel in West Jerusalem we head east and in a short time, we're in another world. Our guide lets us know when we're crossing the "Green Line" or what was the pre-1967 border between Israel and Jordan which divided Jerusalem into two. It's a busy highway now with no indication that this once was the border. East Jerusalem is still predominantly Arab although the newer suburbs even on this side of the city are mostly Jewish.

Checkpoints appear as well as the barbwire-topped fence and enormous concrete wall known around here as the "Separation Barrier" (the "Red Line") as we head east. We're now on the West Bank, which is probably the least politically, culturally and religiously controversial name by which the land on the west bank of the river Jordan is known! It's pretty easy to distinguish the Jewish settlements - legal or otherwise - from Arab villages. It's not just the difference in appearance (the roofs of the two are different shapes for instance) - the Jewish settlements are surrounded by high fences or walls topped with surveillance paraphernalia.

We mostly travel through what is spookily called "Area C". These are the areas of the West Bank that are fully controlled by Israel - both military/security as well as administrative. Less well defined is "Area B" over which the Israelis maintain control of security but the Palestinian Authority has administrative control. These are predominantly areas around Palestinian towns and villages. And then there's "Area A" over which the Palestinians have both security and administrative control and which lay within "Area B". And that's the simple explanation! Most of the West Bank is "Area C" - Areas A & B are around 150 non-contiguous enclaves in which almost 3 million Palestinians live

Most of the West Bank settlements are "legal", meaning that they have been more or less approved and funded by the Israeli government and foreign donations. We visit the settlement of Efrat, home to some 11,000 Jewish settlers around a quarter of whom are recent emigrants mostly from the US, UK and France. They live there because "its cheaper than living in Jerusalem" although most commute to the city for work. Efrat is a long skinny settlement, bearing a striking resemblance to a gerrymandered US congressional district. It was no surprise to learn that the settlement's expansion plans are in part designed to limit the growth of the nearby Palestinian town of Bethlehem...

On the way to the de facto Palestinian capital, Ramallah, we visit the surreal model town of Rawabi. This futuristic town is the brainchild of a Palestinian businessman, Bashar Masri. Funded entirely by private money, Masri's idea was to create a "green" city of the future and one that could be a model for future Palestinian economic development. Impressive and sounds like a great idea, but the town has a very eerie feeling about it. I had the uncanny feeling that we were actually on the set of a remake of the Jim Carey movie "The Truman Show"! We're told that 4000 people already live in the town and there are plans to expand that number to 15,000 and more. And yet we saw virtually nobody! Even though we're there late morning, the shutters were down on all of the "completed" residential buildings and the parks and public spaces were empty (including "Extreme Rawabi" with its zip lines, bungee jumps and ATV's). We meet the enthusiastic Mr Masri in the model town centre, called the "Q-Centre" in honor of Qatar which has underwritten much of this venture. A few people were wondering in and out of the Q-Centre's shops - all western name stores with all signs in English and virtually nothing in Arabic. Perhaps these are the movie's extras...?? It was perhaps somewhat telling that neither Masri, nor his very eloquent US-educated PR man live in Rawabi - both are waiting for their apartments to be finished! Unfortunately, if Rawabi is real the biggest threats to the town's future are that Israel controls the only access into the town - a two lane road that runs through Area C and requires annually renewable permission to be used, and controls water supply to the town....

And so on to Ramallah, the largest town on the West Bank with a population of 70,000 in the town itself and another 200,000 in the surrounding communities. There we visit the offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO) and spend an hour with Dr Saeb Erekat, the urbane and very experienced Chief Negotiator for the Palestinians. More to follow in another blog...