Palestine can be built, one business at a time

James Zogby reflects on friends in Palestine and how they can help build the Palestinian economy

A Palestinian farmer carries boxes of tomatoes from a greenhouse before they are exported to Israel. Khalil Hamra / AP Photo

I have written before of some of my Palestinian American heroes, including men like Ibrahim Abu Lughod and Zahi Khouri. I want to add my friend Sam Bahour to the list.

Two and a half decades ago, Ibrahim was a respected tenured professor at Northwestern University and Zahi was chairman of the board of a major Park Avenue-based investment group. Sam, the youngest of the three, was a successful small businessman in Youngstown, Ohio.

When the Oslo Agreements were signed 22 years ago, these three made tough and courageous choices. Realising that the struggle to build a new Palestinian reality was beckoning, they moved to the parts of Palestine that were newly assigned to the fledging Palestinian Authority to become a part of the building process.

Ibrahim, who had been an important mentor to me in my formative years, moved to Birzeit University and dedicated himself to mentoring a new generation of Palestinian youth. Ibrahim passed away in 2001.

Zahi moved to Jerusalem where he waged a difficult but ultimately victorious struggle to win the right to operate the Coca -Cola franchise in the Palestinian territories. To do this he had to wrest control of the franchise from an Israeli owner who wanted to maintain control over both Israel and the occupied Palestinian lands.

For his part, Sam made a seamless transition using both his business and political acumen to contribute to setting up the first Palestinian telecommunications company, Paltel, and the first modern Palestinian shopping centre, Plaza. Sam focuses his organising around key issues of importance to the Palestinian American community. For many years now, Sam has been the central resource for information on the difficulties Israel has created for Palestinian Americans travelling to and working in the Palestinian Authority areas. When the then senator Barack Obama made his first visit to the West Bank in 2006, Sam joined the Palestinian business community to brief him about the burdens imposed on them by the Israeli authorities. On his return to the US, Mr Obama told me how much he had learnt from the group.

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Now, Sam Bahour has launched a new and important venture. Working with a number of other Palestinian American business leaders and an impressive group of American business executives, they have launched Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (AVPE).

I met with the group a short while back and recognised that driving their efforts were the same convictions that motivated former US vice president Al Gore’s Builders for Peace project, with which I had been associated two decades ago.

First and foremost, there is the recognition that building the private sector, especially through the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises, is the key to job creation and economic growth and is also central to democracy. Another important consideration is that these efforts cannot take a back seat to political developments.

They also realise that the Israeli occupation has placed crippling impediments on the Palestinian business community, leading to distortions in the Palestinian economy. Palestinians can’t freely import raw materials or export their products. Their access to external and even internal markets is limited by the Israeli occupation, so businesses can’t easily grow or benefit from economies of scale. As a result, the Palestinian Authority has become the single largest employer and has, itself, become dependent on foreign financial support.

And finally, they understand that despite these difficulties, the enterprising Palestinian private sector has not only survived, but has continued to play a central role in the economic life of Palestine. The private sector accounts for almost two-thirds of all employment in the territories.

The bottom line is that the private sector is essential, resilient and dynamic. And because it is surviving against amazing odds, it deserves support.

This important truth was never understood by the Clinton administration’s “peace team”. Instead of seeing business development as an essential parallel track to the “peace process”, they deemed it unworthy of their attention.

The Palestinian private sector was left to fend for itself – until now. AVPE is determined to change this negative dynamic by “linking American businesses to Palestinian partners in an effort to bolster the Palestinian economy’s ability to withstand continued Israeli constraints on growth”.

The AVPE effort is not a substitute for Palestinian independence. It recognises that only with independence can the full potential of the Palestinian economy be realised. At the same time, AVPE knows that creating jobs, finding markets, and growing the private sector can’t be set aside for another 20 years.

James Zogby is the president of the Arab American Institute

On Twitter: @aaiusa