JEDDAH, 12 June — The phrase “keeping people under your heel” has taken on a whole new perspective at the Palestine Industries Exhibition at the Jamjoum Center, Jeddah. Blissfully unaware of the fact, the travelers who cross the 4,000 square meter main concourse at San Diego International Airport are walking on a piece of Palestine’s ancient history extracted, cut and dressed by Majsoun Trading in Hebron. It’s an interconnected world.
Izzeddin Meraish, the owner, looks as durable as the marble slabs he cuts out of his homeland. For over 25 years, he has been cutting and dressing stone for building and construction around the world.
“Almost all of our output is exported,” he said. “Ninety percent goes to the USA, Europe and Japan with most of the balance going to Arab countries including Saudi Arabia.”
Being entirely landlocked, export by sea is very difficult.
“Transport to the port that should only take a couple of hours can take days,” he said. “Our trucks get stopped and searched with delays that jeopardize schedules. Still, we survive.”
In essence, that is what the exhibition is about: the survival of the spirit of free enterprise under very adverse conditions.
Many of the businesses in the exhibition have never traded in conditions where they can expand and have free access to markets outside Palestine. The restrictions applied to movement and export facilities by Israel range from aggravating nuisance to downright destructive. In the case of perishable goods — flowers and strawberries — shipments of Palestinian produced goods delayed to the point where they become valueless. Yet the economy and the spirit survive.
Fahad Duwaykat has been trading since 1956. What most reject, he uses as raw material. What most people break, he uses to create. His is a story of building a business from shards of broken glass to the exquisitely shaped and decorated vases and lanterns he makes today.
The National Glass Factory began by making household storage jars and kerosene lamps — essential when there was little or no electricity in Palestine. So successful was he that in 1962 the company invested in German hydraulic machinery and was able to produce industrial and fancy glassware in hugely increased amounts. In 1996, another change in direction and technique produced the conical blown drinking glasses and vases that are now a characteristic of his output.
“About 30 percent of our output is exported, the rest is for local consumption,” he said. “About half our production is for the gift and domestic trade and half is for industry.”
Asked for his reaction to his visit to Jeddah, he beamed broadly. “Alhamdulillah! Very worthwhile. I have made new contacts and many new friends. It has been very good!”
So popular has his glassware been that he has had to delay sales until the last day.
“Otherwise, I would have nothing left so show!” he beamed.
The organizer of the exhibition and Director General of Exhibitions and Marketing at the Palestine Ministry of Industry, Abou Isha Ahmed, put the energy and toughness of the small businesses that comprise the Palestinian economy in perspective.
“For 30 years the economy of Palestine has been slowed up and fragmented by Israeli intervention,” he said. He thought that this was a planned political move to prevent industrialization. It is an effective technique to divide and rule rather than encourage independence.
There has been a steady media program to present Palestine as an empty and backward sort of place, and sadly it seems to have worked, because even now the general impression in Europe and the West is exactly that.
More perceptive potential investors think differently. Abou Isha recalled: “Before the intifada, 19 percent of the GDP was industry-based, a very high percentage for the Arab world. Exports reached $3.5 billion. Now perhaps only $0.6 billion with a poor balance of payments. Even so, 20 percent of our exports are agriculture and the rest are garments, stone and services.”
Still, the resilient and determined Palestinian spirit of enterprise survives. This must be what attracts potential investors. “We have Australian, European, Arab and Asian investors waiting for the situation to stabilize,” he said. “There are even Israeli investors who see our potential.”
“There are plans for new industrial cities,” he said, “but with the occupying forces, it’s impossible to make any sensible progress.”
New industrial cities are planned for Jenin, Nablus and Hebron among others. The project in Gaza is complete and waiting to run. Currently, this is a list of areas of death and destruction, not birthplaces of new industry and hope. Yet the businessmen and organizers still have faith in themselves and the future.
“What we need is stability,” said Abou Isha. His wish list is clear and reasonable. “The military occupation must end, the 1967 borders and UN resolutions be respected and an independent Palestine formed — all under the UN umbrella.”
The character of the people, their determination, industry and resilience to the oppressive conditions they work under has been tested to the full. The impression they give at the exhibition is of a people ready to take their place as a trading nation hardened by adversity and capable of taking on the best.
