A regional workshop held in Bahrain last week ended with a thud instead of the big bang that its North American organisers wanted when they were hoping to rally the Arab world behind a United States economic plan for the Palestinian territories and the broader Middle East.
But for some Israelis in attendance, the two-day event in Manama – called the “Peace to Prosperity” workshop – presented a unique opportunity to establish relationships with Arab investors similarly interested in launching projects in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Shlomi Fogel, an Israeli businessman, told Al Jazeera that he was invited by the White House to Bahrain and found the workshop to be “amazing”. He is CEO of the Ampa Group – a holding company active in real estate, finance and industry – and also the co-owner of the Gold Bond Group and Israel Shipyards.
Fogel said that at the gathering, he discussed his plans with potential Arab investors to create industrial zones operated jointly by Israel and the Palestinians. He said the meeting allowed him to “develop relationships with investors from Saudi Arabia and the UAE [United Arab Emirates] who were enthusiastic”.
With plans to establish textile plants in a free-trade area on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, Fogel promises safe passage for thousands of Palestinian workers who would be working in these plants. He added that the arrangement would facilitate financing by international banks concerned with security risks inside Gaza.
Still, Fogel acknowledged that getting the plan off the ground would take time – not only because of intra-Palestinian political issues, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also due to Israeli bureaucracy.
He said it took nine years and the approval of 22 Israeli governmental bodies to build a 350-metre bridge at the border between Israel and Jordan for the transport of commercial goods between the two countries, which have been bound by a peace treaty since 1994.
Looking ahead, Fogel said he hopes his potential new Arab partners will come to Israel to follow up.
The Palestinian perspective
While Fogel’s plans could create jobs for thousands of Palestinian workers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, for many Palestinians, the project is seen as benefiting Israeli businessmen more than other stakeholders.
Participants in Manama discussed megaprojects such as the corridor connecting the occupied West Bank and Gaza and the building of a power station and a desalination plant for the besieged coastal enclave.
But the Palestinian leadership fiercely opposed the two-day affair, in which Jared Kushner – White House senior adviser and son-in-law of US President Donald Trump – promoted Washington’s economic blueprint for investment in the region as part of a wider plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinian leaders said Kushner-led efforts undermined the two-state solution as stipulated in the Oslo agreement of the 1990s between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel. They also said economic solutions ignore the core political issue for the Palestinians: an end to military occupation.
Palestinians have long expressed fears that US plans will result in the Palestinian Authority (PA) exercising limited rule in some areas of the West Bank, as it does now, with Israel retaining overall control.
Under the Oslo accords, the West Bank is divided into areas A, B and C. On paper, the PA has full control over area A, which comprises 18 percent of the occupied West Bank. Area B, which constitutes about 22 percent, is under Palestinian civil administration while Israel retains security control and some cooperation from Palestinian police. Area C, the other 60 percent, is under Israeli military and administrative control.
‘Quality of life’
Eyal Erlich, an Israeli businessman who did not attend the workshop, is the owner of M. Energy Ltd, a company that seeks to build energy infrastructure projects in Palestinian areas. He has connections in the Palestinian business sector. He is also a long-time peace activist and expressed hope that the Manama workshop would be a step towards helping the Palestinian population, especially in Gaza.
While Erlich said a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is key to rebuilding the Palestinian economy, he added that its absence should not preclude improvement of the daily lives of Palestinians, through cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian companies.
Erlich is trying to do business in Gaza, and set apart thorny political questions from his commercial plans.
Such aspirations carry minimal political risks for him or other Israeli businessmen. But that’s not the case on the Palestinian side.
Palestinian businessmen generally lack the luxury that Israeli businessman have in terms of separating money from politics. For them, political considerations and government policies are paramount – especially when Israel’s economy dominates the Palestinian one.
Despite whatever goodwill that might be there in Manama, the Americans don’t appear to be sincere in helping improve the quality of life of the Palestinian people.
Eyal Erlich, Israeli businessman
When it comes to covering essentials such as electricity and oil supplies, Palestinians have no choice but to make purchases from Israel. And if they decide to import supplies from other countries, their only option is to use Israeli ports and government approvals. But this can add significantly to their overall costs.
With that in mind, Erlich worked in 2016 to establish partnerships with Palestinian businessmen in Gaza in order to buy electricity from the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) and resell it to the Gaza energy authority. However, the project faltered because of approval issues from Israel and the Palestinian government in Ramallah.
“Despite whatever goodwill that might be there in Manama, the Americans don’t appear to be sincere in helping improve the quality of life of the Palestinian people,” Erlich told al Jazeera.
Fathi al-Sheikh Khalil, the former head of the Gaza energy authority, told al Jazeera that Gaza needs to improve its grid capacity and can only buy the electricity it needs to power the strip from the IEC.
According to Khalil, Gaza’s two million residents currently only have eight hours of electricity a day, and even that is mainly due to Qatar-funded purchases of diesel fuel that amount to $10m a month to operate Gaza’s only power station.
Instead of the current 200 megawatts of electricity per day, Gaza needs 500 megawatts during the summer season, or 800 megawatts to operate industrial factories and businesses, which are currently shuttered due to energy shortages.
“The Palestinian authorities in Gaza had always been open to buying energy from private Israeli companies if this was their only option,” Khalil said.
Even so, he insists that political instability and the ongoing conflict with Israel stand in the way of truly improving the Palestinian economy.
Follow Ali Younes on Twitter: @ali_reports
