Sam Bahour durante la seconda conferenza sulla resistenza non violenta a Bil’in : “Building economic independence”

14/03/2008

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Sam Bahour

Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American businessman and activist based in Al-Bireh/Ramallah, Palestine. He is Managing Partner of Applied Information Management (AIM), a management consulting firm specializing in business development with a niche focus on the information technology sector. Sam was instrumental in the establishment of PALTEL and the PLAZA Shopping Center and currently serves as a Board of Trustees member at Birzeit University and is the Board’s treasurer. He is also a Director at the Arab Islamic Bank and Dalia Association. Sam writes frequently on Palestinian affairs and has been widely published. Sam is co-editor of HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians and may be reached at: sbahour@palnet.com.

Building economic independence (testo)

First, allow me to salute the people of Bil’in. Your steadfastness is being registered in the annals of history with every meter of Wall that’s being built and with every olive tree that’s being uprooted every single day.

I’ve been asked to speak briefly about Building Economic Independence, a complicated topic; but first, allow me to start by posting a question.

How do we integrate a future Palestinian economy into a U.S.-dominated globalized world today, while yet under a foreign military occupation — an occupation operating in the full view of the international community? Yes, I speak of those 3rd parties that are signatories to the 4th Geneva Convention that, for the last year, and some through today, have opted to apply economic and political sanctions against the occupied people, driving us to a nation of poverty, despair and lawlessness. How do we do all of this while our own leadership drinks tea on a bimonthly basis with that very same occupier that is removing, by daily actions on the ground, the options for a viable Palestinian economy.

For 40 years, Israel linked the occupied Palestinian territory economically to its own. By design, an economic umbilical cord was weaved into every one of our sectors. To fast forward for the sake of time, it is worthy to note that the Oslo Peace Accords kept that umbilical cord fully attached, while at the same time placing on the Palestinian side the colossal burden of meeting the challenges of economic development without having the access to the full toolbox of economic resources.

State donors entered the equation. Instead of rising to the obligations placed upon them in the 4th Geneva Convention to ensure no harm be done to the occupied people, the ‘protected people’ as we are classified under international law, these 3rd party states began feeding us fish in place of teaching us how to fish. In short, donors have become accomplices to the economic repression and sustaining of the status quo that is simmering us to death as we stand and struggle here today.

Donors are not the only players in the equation. Sustainable development cannot be based on the agenda and political moods of foreign donors. Palestinian business and Palestinian consumers are, or should, I say, be the foundations which we build our economy upon. It would be unfair to say the Palestinian business community has failed, it has not. Many businesses have remained steadfast in the face of unimaginable odds. Many others have been exceedingly successful. However, the success criteria of many of the movers and shakers in our business community needs to be scrutinized. Is success extracting an annual $100 million profit from the occupied people for a basic service? Is success considering building of industrial zones between the Apartheid Wall and the Green Line? Is success the monopolization of the various sectors and blocking new investments and new jobs from being created? As I noted, thousands of business are doing amazing things to keep their doors open, but a few movers and shakers have no intention of moving or shaking the occupation out of our lives, and it is these elements of our own society we must hold accountable.

Accountability cannot come from an expired Authority, no matter how much we love the people trying to make it something. However, they are pre-occupied with factional politics. The Palestinian citizen, the Palestinian consumer, and those in solidarity with Palestinians must carry the burden.

I cannot comprehend how we can peacefully co-exist with Israeli settlement products on our shelves.

I cannot comprehend how we can allow Israeli firms to dump their products and services into our markets with no repercussions whatsoever.

I cannot comprehend how 3rd party states refuse to take on their obligations under the 4th Geneva Convention when they see the economic roadblocks, the checkpoints and the Walls that Israel has constructed around us.

Our land is being grabbed by the hour. Through what our good friend, Jeff Halper, called a “matrix of control,” Israel is making sure land is not sufficient for daily life, let alone economic independence. The hand of occupation controls the lands we cultivate and the destiny of the trees that we plant.

We are forced to buy our water from the Israeli water company, paying more than the Israelis buying from the same source but using less per capita. The hand of occupation controls our water facets.

The West Bank electricity is bought from the Israeli Electric Company and resold to us. The hand of occupation controls our light switches.

Every telephone call all you make abroad is forced to go through an Israeli operator. The hand of occupation controls our conversations.

Every laborer wanting to work in Israel, or on their land on the other side of the wall for that matter, must be issued an Israeli permit. The hand of occupation controls the sweat of our workers.

For the first time in our history, over a 1/3 of the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem desire to voluntarily emigrate. Over a 1/3! I should note that International Humanitarian Law is clear about war crimes. The bloody events of 1948 and 1967 and 2002 were all war crimes no doubt – a military occupation that was and still is drunk on power, bent on destroying the fabric of Palestinian society with results that are known too well to all of us. But it is an equal war crime under the laws of occupation for the “occupying power,” that’s Israel if we have forgotten, to create the conditions for the occupied people to voluntarily be left with no option but to leave their homes in search of a livelihood. I add to this the new Israeli policy of outright denying entry to those of us that are prevented by Israel of ascertaining residency. This denied entry policy is separating families and contributing to a faster pace of a brain drain created by Israel. I tend to call all of this a sterile ethnic cleansing, one that happens one family at a time, far from the media and totally bloodless.

This is our reality, a reality many try to brush aside or under the carpet while pretending to be building or contributing to a viable state. Such a reality is incompatible with viability. Such a reality is not conducive to building economic independence.

So what do we do? Fold up? Hide under a rock the waves have passed? Accept and acquiesce to the foreign military occupation that has kept the boot of occupation on our necks for the last 40 years and which has separated us from our people for the last 60?

NO. NOT THIS PEOPLE. We may not yet know how to win and end this nightmare, but I can assure you we definitely know how not to lose.

As we, a community, make our structural adjustment and internal politics, new leadership is bound to emerge.

As we learn and master the tools of our oppressors, our just case will be articulated online, offline, around the wall, and over the wall.

As we focus on matters that are the most important in life: family, community and our inalienable rights, more focus will be placed on our ability to create a global development partnership, our own kind of GDP, rather than chase the World Bank’s traditional measure of GDP. Our GDP includes all of those laborious hours mothers spend keeping their children’s sanity and maintaining family life. Our GDP includes the efforts of all our political prisoners, as they spend time remaining steadfast in Israeli prisons. Our GDP is Global in scope, Developmental in substance, and in Partnership with peace-and-justice-loving people wherever they reside.

I’m sorry if I disappointed you by not talking about the many economic accomplishments over the last decade, some that I had the honor of being part of. It is not that I’m not proud that, under odds that most communities would have buckled under, we have built productive companies, a stock market, a banking industry, an ICT industry, an olive oil industry, a furniture industry, and a pharmaceutical industry, among others.

These are all important, but they are all trappings of a status quo that is taking us to a level of despair, unknown to our struggle. In a normal environment, I, as a private sector player, would be yearning for return on investments. In Palestine, I challenge my peers in the business sector to translate that return to:

a return to international law; a return to recognized borders; a return of our refugees and; and a return to building community.

These returns are the only returns that will put us on the path toward economic independence.

In closing, I want to note a quote passed to me by an Israeli friend in Jerusalem. One of the Jewish sages, someone famous in Judaism, from the 17th Century; a Rabbi Nachman once said, “There is nothing that is more whole than a broken heart”.

My friend said that this is not so easy to see from within. I agree.

Thank you.