CAIRO, April 28, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Two studies conducted by a leading American think-thank said the establishment of a viable and successful Palestinian state requires territorial contiguity of lands, open borders and security within Palestine and for its neighbors.

“These studies spell out practical steps that can help make the goal of a Palestinian state living in peace and prosperity alongside Israel a reality,” RAND President and CEO James A. Thomson said on the group’s Web site.

“We hope RAND's two years of rigorous and objective problem-solving research will point the way to a better future for the people of the region,” added RAND Executive Vice President Michael Rich.

The studies, released on Wednesday April, 27, are designed to provide helpful ideas that Palestinians and other involved parties can study and develop further to best meet the needs of the Palestinian people.

The recommendations would give Palestinians new access to jobs, food, water, education, health care, housing and public services, according to a news release on the Web site.

A Palestinian state could be viable at a cost of $ 33 million in its first 10 years, according to the studies.

The estimated price tag represents an annual average of $760 per person that was broadly comparable with other nation-building efforts.

However, co-author Steven Simon admits that “no one knows what this would really cost at the end of the day.”

One of the two studies proposes the building of a landmark rail, highway and infrastructure link between the West Bank and Gaza.

The corridor — called the Arc — would support a high-speed 140-mile interurban rail line, highway, aqueduct, energy network and fiber optic cable linking Palestine's major towns and cities.

The new rail line could whisk visitors who enter Palestine through an envisaged new international airport in the southern Gaza Strip to anywhere on the West Bank within minutes.

At the same time, it would provide a swift and efficient way of moving exports from the West Bank to the new state's port at Gaza.

The corridor construction is expected to create an estimated 100,000 to 160,000 jobs for Palestinians over five years, on top of thousands more jobs in new businesses built along the corridor.

However, the authors of the report said the creation of a viable and successful Palestinian state faces a number of major challenges.

They said the prospects of success would be enhanced if the future state achieved territorial contiguity.

This flies in the face of the separation wall now being constructed by Israel inside the West Bank and Israeli attempts to retain major settlement blocs that would split any future Palestinian state into geographically isolated cantons.

Israel had refused international appeals to stop the construction of the wall, which is leaving thousands of Palestinians displaced.

The 600-km-long barrier has resulted in the confiscation of 11,4000 donums (2,850 acres - 1,140 hectares) of privately-owned Palestinian land and in the destruction of 102,320 trees, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

The studies also said the success of the would be Palestinian state depends on security.

“The success of an independent Palestinian state is inconceivable in the absence of peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike,” said one of the two studies.

“An independent Palestinian state must be secure within its boundaries, provide for the routine safety of its inhabitants, be free from subversion or foreign exploitation and pose no threat to Israel.”

The studies, however, made no reference to the strength of the powerful Israeli settler movement opposed to any settlement of the conflict that would see them evacuating illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian territories.

The authors claimed, moreover, that the stability of the future state would be compromised if it allowed Palestinian refugees to enter in its first years.

“Such a return would likely swamp Palestine's infrastructure and institutional capacities,” they argued, suggesting annual immigration quotas.

Yet the authors acknowledged that limiting refugee return could stir up enormous anger and risk destabilizing the new Palestinian government.

Millions of Palestinians had been driven out of their homes after the creation of Israel in 1948. Israel has denied their return ever since.