Palestinian Trade Delegation Tours U.S. Cities

By Shawn L. Twing

The New York-based Palestinian American Chamber of Commerce hosted seven Palestinian businessmen for a week-long tour of the United States, with stops in New York, Chicago, Milwaukee and Washington, DC. During their early October visit, members of the delegation met with representatives of the American private and public sectors to discuss measures to increase American investment in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as steps needed to eliminate obstacles blocking economic development. In an interview with the Washington Report, delegation members discussed the current economic climate in Palestine and offered their suggestions for its improvement.

Perhaps the most pervasive sentiment shared by all of the group's members was that conditions for Palestinian businessmen have worsened since the signing of the Oslo accords. Rami Sabba, import manager for the Al-Sabi Agricultural Company based in Qalqilya, described one such condition: the increase in permits required to transport goods into Israel, or from the West Bank to Gaza. Whereas these deliveries used to require a single permit, they now require individual permits for the vehicle, its driver and for the vehicle's cargo, and they are good only on predetermined days for specific, short periods of time. Further, they can be made void if the Israelis decide to close the borders. The result, according to Sabba, is a situation where Palestinian businessmen attempting to deliver their products are forced to work within cumbersome bureaucratic requirements that make them completely dependent on Israeli authorities.

This creates numerous problems for Palestinians who cannot conduct business without the formal approval of the Israelis, which often is difficult to obtain. Sabba summed up the feeling of the group, saying, "We know there is a historic change but we don't see it on the ground."

A second view expressed by members of the delegation was disdain for the current Israeli-Palestinian economic agreement. Nasser Abdelhadi, founder of The Arab Hotels Company and assistant managing director of the Arab Insurance Establishment Company, said of the agreement, "Every way you look at it there's a catch." Economic analysts have argued from the beginning that the agreement serves only to make the Palestinian economy dependent on the Israeli economy, with little real economic benefit for the Palestinians. Members of the trade delegation echoed that sentiment.

In a nine-page letter entitled "Impediments to the Investment Scene in Palestine" distributed to delegates attending the recent economic conference in Amman, Jordan, the Palestinian private sector announced its decision to boycott the conference unless the numerous obstacles placed on the Palestinian economy in the occupied territories and the newly designated Palestinian autonomous areas are addressed seriously. The list of "general impediments" included the incessant need for permits to transport goods, people and capital, and Israeli requirements that Palestinians must rent Israeli trucks when transporting goods from the West Bank to Gaza, whichs adds substantially to the final cost of the transported products.

The second half of the letter presented specific examples of difficulties faced by the Palestinian private sector. One such anecdote described how two groups of Palestinian private-sector businessmen, one from Gaza and one from the West Bank, attempted to meet for a discussion of regional economic cooperation between the two areas. Although the necessary permits were arranged in advance and the delegates left a day early, they were unable to meet in Gaza City as planned and had to conduct their meeting at a border checkpoint because Israeli soldiers wouldn't let the West Bank delegation in or the Gaza delegation out. The provisions that exist in the Israeli-Palestinian economic agreement that permit such obstacles to Palestinian economic prosperity are, in the words of the letter to the Amman Conference, "anathema to the free market spirit."

Mutual Economic Benefits

Of particular interest during the interview were the delegates' attempts to focus less on the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and more on mutual economic benefits for Palestinian and American businesses. The delegates stressed that they were not looking for American charity but wanted investment capital for mutual economic gain. In the words of Tarik Zaki, chairman of Euro-Arab Investment Limited, "We are businessmen, not politicians. The only color we see is green."

Other members of the visiting delegation were Anees Barghouti, director general of the Palestinian National Authority's Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation; Hanna S. Siniora, chairman of the European Palestinian Chamber of Commerce; Ribhi Abu Rmaileh, managing medical representative of RIAM Drug Store; and Azzam M. Jamous, an independent businessman specializing in importing and marketing ceramic products. Palestinian American Chamber of Commerce president Nabiel Fareed told the Washington Report that he hopes to organize another meeting between Palestinian and American businessmen, this time bringing U.S. businessmen to Palestine. He invited anyone interested in doing business in Palestine to contact the Palestinian American Chamber of Commerce, One World Trade Center, Suite 4073, New York, NY 10048, phone (212) 938-0407, fax (212) 775-0407 or (516) 385-0771.

Shawn L. Twing is the news editor of the Washington Report.