Defeating Denormalization
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From Defeating Denormalization In the last few years, Palestinians who have met face-to-face with Israelis and Palestinian scholars cooperating in joint academic and educational projects have encountered threats, intimidation, and outright violence at the hands of BDS and denormalization activists. My personal experience with Palestinian efforts to denormalize relations with Israelis demonstrates how this movement is ideologically bankrupted, bellicose, antagonistic, and even anti-Semitic in nature. Professor Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi Founding Director, American Studies Institute, Al-Quds University. To encourage Palestinians to work in the industrial zones, Israeli labor laws governing employment, minimum wage, and national insurance were applied equally and EW PATH TO PEACE TO EW PATH transportation to the sites was arranged for Palestinian residents of local towns and N villages. At present, more than 20,000 Palestinians have regular jobs in these zones. This model, which avoided giving veto power to the PA, is the most successful. Col. (res.) Dr. Danny Tirza ON A S Former head of the Strategic Planning Unit of the Judea and Samaria Division, IDF Central Command I value the harmonious group dynamic and positive atmosphere at SodaStream. Our ECTIVE managers treat us with respect, and this in turn makes us feel that the factory is our SP second home. We also receive an Israeli salary, which is more than three times the salary I would be making in Ramallah. We have access to social benefits including paid vacation, annual leave, sick leave, pension plans, a fund for continuing education, and medical insurance. RAELI PER Nabil Basherat IS Manager, SodaStream D The Palestinian leadership would be well advised to follow the lead of its citizenry and DEFEATING cooperate closely with its Israeli neighbor. This would result in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians working for good wages and benefits while learning from and adapting TINIAN AN to the Start-up Nation culture that Israeli entrepreneurs have attempted to share with S DENORMALIZATION Palestinian colleagues in an effort to forge a better common future. Khaled Abu Toameh PALE D SHARED PALESTINIAN AND ISRAELI Senior Distinguished Fellow, Gatestone Institute PERSPECTIVES ON A NEW PATH TO PEACE SHARE Professor Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi Professor Ali Qleibo | Khaled Abu Toameh Nabil Basherat | Nadia Aloush | Rami Levy Daniel Birnbaum | Dan Diker Col. (res.) Dr. Danny Tirza | Pinhas Inbari 13 Tel Hai St., Jerusalem, 92107 Israel Email: [email protected] | Tel: 972-2-561-9281 | Fax: 972-2-561-9112 DENORMALIZATION DEFEATING Jerusalem Center Websites Editor: Dan Diker www.jcpa.org (English) | www.jcpa.org.il (Hebrew) www.jcpa-lecape.org (French) | www.jer-zentrum.org (German) The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs DEFEATING DENORMALIZATION: Shared Palestinian and Israeli Perspectives on a New Path to Peace Professor Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi Professor Ali Qleibo Khaled Abu Toameh Nabil Basherat Nadia Aloush Rami Levy Daniel Birnbaum Dan Diker Col. (res.) Dr. Danny Tirza Pinhas Inbari Editor: Dan Diker Senior Research Scholar: Jamie Berk Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Director of Production: Ahuva Ben-Dor Production and Research Coordinator: Tamara Elashvili Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Beit Milken, 13 Tel Hai St., Jerusalem, 92107, Israel Email: [email protected] www. jcpa.org Tel: 972-2-561-9281 Fax: 972-2-561-9112 © 2018 Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs s Negev factory. David׳Cover photo: Palestinian and Israeli employees at SodaStream Abitbol, November 2017. ISBN 978-965-218-137-4 Acknowledgments This research and policy book was made possible by the extraordinary vision and support of the following friends of the Jerusalem Center and leaders of the Jewish world: James S. Tisch, Morris Offit, Sarah Biser, David Keidan, Eugene and Emily Grant, Joseph M. Cohen, Peter J. and Susan Solomon, Roy H. and Judy Stern, Steven Stern, Kenneth and Nira Abramowitz, Valerie and Charles Diker, Mark N. Diker, Howard G. Sands, Laurence Leeds, Andrew Scott Kligerman, Mark Levenson, Julio Messer, Gerald Platt, Irwin Hochberg, Patty Stark, and several other anonymous donors. 3 Contents 1. Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................ 7 2. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 13 Dan Diker 3. The Palestinian Authority’s Policy of Denormalization ...................................... 17 Khaled Abu Toameh 4. The Effects of BDS and Denormalization on West Bank Industrial Zones ................................................................................................ 35 Col. (res.) Dr. Danny Tirza 5. The Desire for Defined Status in Multicultural Jerusalem ................................. 47 Prof. Ali Qleibo 6. SodaStream as a Model of “Economic Peace” ............................................................. 57 Daniel Birnbaum 7. Palestinian-Israeli Normalization in the Workplace: A Manager’s View ............................................................................................................................... 79 Nabil Basherat 8. Palestinian-Israeli Equality and Normalization: The Case of Rami Levy Supermarkets ............................................................................... 95 Rami Levy 9. A Palestinian Woman’s Perspective on Working for an Israeli Company ................................................................................................................ 107 Nadia Aloush 10. EU-PA Cooperation and Risks to the Palestinian Future ................................. 117 Pinhas Inbari 11. Wasatia: The Straight Path from Denormalization to Reconciliation ............................................................................................................................ 127 Prof. Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi 12. About the Authors .......................................................................................................................... 147 13. About the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs ........................................................ 150 5 Executive Summary The Palestinian Authority’s Policy of Denormalization Khaled Abu Toameh • The current Palestinian political economy, influenced far too greatly by the BDS and anti-normalization campaigns, amounts to a corrupt, unsustainable, terror- supporting regime that is disinterested in the economic well-being of its own people and the development of a new state. • Denormalization’s first objective is to intimidate and threaten Palestinians and Israelis who seek peace and a “two states for two peoples” solution. Denormalization’s second objective is to delegitimize and isolate Israel in the international community. In this regard, denormalization parallels Hamas and other terror groups that are working to destroy any chance of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. • Under the pretext of refusing to bolster Israel’s “occupation economy,” the Palestinian leadership has publicly declined to cooperate on joint projects with the Israeli government or the Israeli private sector that would benefit both economies and both peoples. The Effects of BDS and Denormalization on West Bank Industrial Zones Col. (res.) Dr. Danny Tirza • What will be the impact of an economic boycott of the products of the West Bank settlements and the Israeli industrial zones? Already in 2010, the PA announced a boycott of the settlement products, aimed at preventing their use in the Palestinian market. Except for the huge housing project in Rawabi, which is making use of engineers, planners, advisers, raw materials, and professionals from Israel, but not from the settlements, the boycott has been a failure. • Clearly, the direct outcome of the Palestinian boycott of settlement products and industrial zones will be a mortal blow to Palestinian employment, which will also damage cycles of consumption and commerce. The PA offers no productive alternative to such employment, and the decreased standard of living will lead to violence and the strengthening of the radical Muslim elements that seek to destroy Israel and undermine Palestinian governance. • Various models and initiatives to establish Palestinian industrial zones have failed to take hold, despite years of investment and interest from donors across globe, including Japan, Turkey, and European countries. 7 The Desire for Defined Status in Multicultural Jerusalem Prof. Ali Qleibo • Fifty years after the annexation of Jerusalem, the innumerable employment opportunities provided by the Israeli system have fostered a de facto upgraded standard of living. Despite appeals by some Jordanians and Palestinians to boycott the Israelis (the concept of sumud), the integration of greater Jerusalem Arab residents into the Israeli sector has continued unabated. • Former cave-dwelling Bedouin shepherds and peasants living in penury, have now moved from the kerosene-lamp-lit caves with outhouses, to comfortable villas and spacious apartments with full amenities including air-conditioning and at least two cars per household. As white and blue collar workers, they are beneficiaries of the flourishing Israeli labor market. • However, despite advantageous economic conditions, Jerusalem’s Arab residents are still in an untenable political situation. Since the signing