By Sam Bahour
October 24, 2000
sbahour@palnet.com
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and the Palestinian People have a national and moral obligation to lead the resistance to Israeli aggression and occupation as determined, at minimum, in the Arab League Emergency Summit held in Cairo on 22/10/2000.
Ever since the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords, there have been repeated calls from Palestinian public opinion for the PNA to reduce its strategic economic alliances with Israel, where possible, and create a dual strategy of peaceful negotiations without total economic reliance. Some specific issues, among many, that were voiced throughout the last several years were:
The legal inability of the Palestinian Securities Exchange to define and/or restrict Israeli or Israeli-related entities, be they firms or individuals, from purchasing shares in publicly-traded firms; The issue of building a network of industrial parks around the 1967 [Armistice] Green Line that mainly focus on recruiting Israeli-based firms to utilize low-wage Palestinian workers; and The establishment and participation in funds, like that of the Peace Technology Fund, that rely mainly on Israeli-based initiatives and goodwill.
To reinvigorate institutionalized leadership in the resistance of Israeli economic occupation, we must look inwards and begin a process of aligning our national institutions and the legal framework of our society with the national challenges that we are, and have been, facing.
The Arab League Emergency Summit resolutions, regardless of our opinion on the extent of its actions, present concrete steps that must be acted upon, first and foremost, by the Palestinian National Authority, representing the emerging State of Palestine. We must translate the Arab League resolve to confront the Israeli penetration, in any way, shape or form, into the Arab World and to stop all non-essential regional cooperation with Israel until a just and lasting peace is established.
Furthermore, prior, during and following the Arab League Emergency Summit, Israeli officials have made clear, provocative threats of possible economic polices that include, “unilateral separation”, "economic separation", and " replacing Palestinian workers with Israeli ones." These statements come from the most senior political leadership in Israel and coincide with this most recent aggression, where Israel targeted the Palestinian Port in Gaza, Voice of Palestine Radio, National Security outposts, and imposed multiple closures of the only Palestinian Airport. Undoubtedly, a higher level of strategic planning on part of the Palestinian side is required to ensure its ability to survive under continued unforeseen and protracted difficult conditions of Occupation and beyond.
To rise above the Arab League rhetoric of resistance and to translate the positive parts of the Arab League Emergency Summit Communiqué, the following suggestions would exemplify clear leadership on behalf of the Palestinian National Authority. It goes without saying that inherent in the approach of each is the need to define the particular conditions that we live in while still under full Israeli Occupation. Furthermore, given Israeli dominance upon us, all of the below suggestions do not preclude Palestinians from doing business with Israeli entities, but does entail doing smart business based on a nation building strategy.
Promoting Palestine, in Palestine
Where Palestinian/Arab/other products are available the PNA should revoke the import license or distribution rights of the alternative Israeli products, be they made in Israel or elsewhere. This policy can immediately start with all products found originating from the Israeli settlements, regardless if alternatives are present in the market. The PNA should not wait for the consumer, storeowner or distributor to voluntarily remove these products of Occupation from our economy. This policy may be easily enforceable by levying heavy fines on illegal importers of products that have been banned.
Israeli Equity in Palestinian Firms
We can no longer drag our feet and ignore the strategic threat of opening the doors of our firms to Israeli equity as long as we are unsure of our future relationship with Israel. In addition to this basic concern, it is clear that permitting unrestricted equity investments in Palestinian firms could provide easy targets to ill-intentioned Israeli players to purchase what Israel already occupies, or worse yet, place themselves in our internal affairs. This is not to say that we, by any means, should adopt a protectionism policy or an economic policy solely considering our conflict with Israel, but rather, we should remain committed to the already well articulated policy of a free and open market economy executed within a national economic direction.
The Ministry of Economy and Trade has the full ability, under the existing legal system in Palestine, to issue a Ministerial Regulation to this effect and immediately put an equity safeguard action plan into process. Part of this plan would also need to reviewuate how to document and handle the already existing Israeli-related equity interests in our community.
As for those Israelis that are not ill intentioned, they, unfortunately, will pay the price of also being excluded from direct equity involvement in our economy until the Occupation of Palestine by their government is reversed. This is not to say that our Israeli friends, which I’m sure exist, cannot support our strategy from their vantage point by working to ensure that the Israeli private sector does not add hurt to injury by exploiting the Israeli Governments economic siege of Palestine.
Industrial Zone Planning
Serious reconsideration should start regarding relocating the yet un-built industrial zones. It may be more advantageous to plan for future industrial parks, high tech or otherwise, to be built in urban locations that are closer to Palestinian population centers. More strategically located, these zones would have better chances to remain operational even in the eventuality of similar Israeli aggression/closures in the future or prolonged closure of the West Bank and Gaza from Israel even after the creation of the State of Palestine. In this respect, less reliance should be based on the wishes of USAID and Israel and more strategic self-defined strategies should be designed. We should plan for the non-Israeli foreign direct investors who are less concerned if an Industrial Park is located in Khadoury or in Tubas.
Joint Investment Funds
Over the last several years, the Palestinian National Authority, either directly or through third parties, has involved itself in several investment funds with Israeli partners. The time has come to re-align foreign involvement in building Palestine without it needing to pass through an Israeli investment “checkpoint”, such as what has been happening with the fund raising efforts of Shimon Peres and the Peres Center for Peace. A good place to start would be applying Force Majeure to the efforts of the Peace Technology Fund, which has failed to date anyway, and re-channel those monies in to a Palestine Technology Fund that is run by Palestinians with the goal of building an independent high-tech sector in Palestine. Another alternative would be to re-direct this effort into building a proper network of health care facilities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, similar to those present in Israel and most Arab countries.
Foreign Embassies in Jerusalem
The Palestinian Bar Association should be asked to design a clause that may be stipulated in all future commercial contractual agreements in order to safeguard our emerging State from any foreign party that wishes, on one hand, to do business in Palestine (i.e. reap the high profits associated with high risk markets) while, on the other hand, their Governments destroy our future State and its capital of Jerusalem. One approach to this could be that the validity of future contracts be dependent on the home country of the contracting parties not locating its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem or recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel until final, permanent status resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is concluded.
Telecommunications Relations
This is an issue that has been beaten to death during the last six years and now there is no longer any excuse not to act. The Israelis have been raping this core infrastructure sector from revenues and its ability to grow. The Palestinian Ministry of Post and Telecommunications must take legal and practical action against those Israeli firms that continue to disregard the agreements between the parties, and even disdain basic business decency, and continue to operate without being duly licensed by the PNA.
Mainly, the efforts should be directed toward the Israeli cellular operators, Pelephone, Cellcom, and MIRS. No more petty actions or empty words should be said, but rather swift action should be taken to terminate connectivity to these illegal operators from the entire Palestinian network, including incoming and outgoing traffic. We now have several clear alternatives to these services, whether it is Jawwal, the PALTEL Ahlan prepaid card, the extensive public PALTEL telephone network, or the Ministry’s ability to issue new licensees for Palestinians to develop even more alternative solutions. Likewise, Palestinian media outlets should be prohibited from publishing advertisements from illegal service operators, just like they would be prohibited to advertise the services of a prostitute house.
Banking Relations
Our reality may require that our banking system be connected at some points with the Israeli banking system, however that being the case, there should be a proactive consumer campaign to have Palestinian citizens and businesses avoid individually dealing with Israeli banks. This campaign would assume that our banking system would start to provide all of the necessary services and streamlined procedures to promote such an action. This should include an accelerated lending policy to encourage construction start-ups to continue to develop under these trying times. This proactive approach may also provide a partial solution to several hundred construction workers that are not able to work in Israel given the closures.
Building Home Economies
As old fashion as this may sound, I believe it is an essential requirement given our vulnerability to Israeli military sieges. We should not permit ourselves to demand the rest of our occupied lands while we ignore the development of those already ascertained. Every homeowner should be encouraged and trained to plant and invest in producing some of the crops that are essential to our steadfastness and resistance. This campaign should link schools, volunteers, NGO’s, etc and be led by the Ministry of Agriculture. As above, this may also pose another partial solution to several hundred agricultural workers that are not able to work in Israel given the closures.
Hand in hand, with all the above suggestions, is the need to be just as powerful and blunt with our actions to secure a level of Palestinian responsibility that also rises to the required level of events. The quality and safety of Palestinian products must be continuously monitored and improved, Palestinian private and public sector management, especially that active in infrastructure projects must be resistance-orientated and not only purely business savvy, and pre-crisis emergency planning and drills must become part and parcel of our national mindset whether it be to face the aggression of Occupation or to deal with natural disasters.
It must be noted that the vantage point of any single citizen of Palestine certainly prohibits the comprehensive inputs and discussions necessary to reach an acceptable action plan during these trying times; nevertheless, pointing in the right direction to someone who may be lost is invaluable input. All of the above suggestions, and many more that can be addressed given proper venues engaged by the Palestinian entities responsible for strategic planning, must start to be institutionalized in a fashion that will safeguard our building of the State of Palestine. We must not allow ourselves to be blindsided by our good intentions to co-exist peacefully in the region without making proper strategic planning that safeguards our rights and accomplishments.
Some positive statements of re-reviewuating the strategic situation are already surfacing such as that of the Palestinian Minister of Industry Sa’di Alkrunz, who told Globes Magazine (19/10/00), ”The Palestinian Authority (PA) considers it highly urgent to develop an independent Palestinian economy free of Israel. The two economies should be separated, but this must be done step-by-step, through negotiations and agreements.” Alkrunz made clear that such a process would take many years. He correctly argued that Israel has an obligation to rehabilitate the PA’s economy, after having destroyed it during its 33 years of occupation.
The Arab League Summit would probably like to believe that throwing $1 Billion at the problem would make it disappear. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Just the opposite, the Arab monies that are being granted to the Palestinians following this most recent Israeli aggression should not, and must not, be accepted as an alternative to holding Israel fully responsible, financially or otherwise, for the great loss of life and property experienced during 33-years of its ugly and illegal occupation of Palestinians.
To realize our emerging State, we must look beyond the Israeli jeeps and tanks that are poised at the entrances of our cities. We must engage every able citizen to contribute to laying the solid foundation of the State that is being set by the blood of our citizens being ruthlessly killed on our streets. Every July 4th the USA celebrates their independence, Israel does the same on May 15th, both of these days came after a great human loss and suffering, as Palestinians too rightfully know as it relates to Israel. Although we attempted to be different in our road to statehood and, for the last 9 years, we attempted to convince Israel to end their illegal Occupation through negotiations, it seems that these two parties, the USA and Israel, are dragging us to make heavy sacrifices - - in Israel’s case, they are asking us to make it multiple times, 1948, 1967, 1987 and 2000.