Tunnel to West Bank. Photo: Justin McIntosh

Thousands of Palestinians working in the U.S. and South America have been building luxury homes in the West Bank, AFP reported.

Rafae Hamida, president of a charity in the West Bank village of Mazraa al-Sharqiya, told the French news agency that just 5,000 of the village’s 12,000 “residents” actually live there. Two-thirds of them, Hamida said, live in either the U.S., Peru and Brazil and are using the village’s territory to build dream houses.

“And every one of them wants to build a house that’s better than the next,” Hamida said.

The homes “far exceed the regular size of Palestinian houses” and feature facades “covered with stone and adorned with huge pillars,” according to AFP.