<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[ei: Rawabi developer Masri helps deepen Israel&#8217;s grip on West&nbsp;Bank]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><span class="text14">Ali Abunimah, <em>The Electronic Intifada,</em> 6 January 2011</p>
<p><span class="content"> </span></span></p>
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<td><span class="text11">Bashar Masri with Leocadia Zak, Acting  Director of the United States Trade Development Agency, after singing an  agreement at Rawabi, March 2010. (Haytham Othman/<a href="http://www.maanimages.com/">MaanImages</a>)</span></td>
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<p><span class="text14"><span class="content"><br />
Bashar Masri, the Palestinian businessman and CEO of the company that is  developing the Rawabi luxury real estate project in the occupied West  Bank, appears to be actively helping Israel deepen its hold on the  Palestinian economy despite his earlier claims that he is trying to help  end this relationship.</p>
<p>On 30 December, The Electronic Intifada reported that the Boycott,  Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) in Palestine had  expressed serious concerns following reports that a dozen Israeli  companies have been contracted to take part in the construction of  Rawabi, billed as the &#8220;first planned Palestinian city&#8221; (&#8220;<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11706.shtml">Role of Israeli firms raises boycott concerns about Rawabi</a><a>&#8220;).</p>
<p>In comments sent to The Electronic Intifada prior to the 30 December  article, Masri claimed that using Israeli firms was a matter of  necessity due to severe Israeli restrictions on the Palestinian economy  in the occupied West Bank.</p>
<p>Masri is CEO of the Ramallah-based Bayti Real Estate Investment Company  which is building Rawabi. He is also founder of the firm Massar  International which along with Qatari Diar is financing the project.</p>
<p>Masri stated &#8220;It is also a well-known fact that our economy is very much  dependent on Israel. Of course we do not like it but we have no  choice.&#8221;</p>
<p>But in fact Masri appears to have made the choice to work closely with  the Israeli government and businesses in order to bring even more  Israeli companies into the occupied West Bank. This not only makes it  harder for Palestinian firms to establish themselves against Israeli  businesses which have a built-in advantage since Israel is the occupying  power, but is in flagrant violation of the 2005 Palestinian civil  society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.</p>
<p>On 28 January 2010, for example, Masri gave a talk in Tel Aviv co-hosted  by the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce and a body called the  Israeli-Palestinian Chamber of Commerce, titled &#8220;Prospects for Investing  in the Palestinian Authority.&#8221; Advertised in Hebrew on the </a><a href="http://www.chamber.org.il/Content.aspx?code=5295&amp;nl=79">Israel-America Chamber of Commerce website</a>, attendees were required to pay an entrance fee of up to 200 shekels ($56 US).</p>
<p>The Israeli-Palestinian Chamber of Commerce (IPCC) appears to be a body  established and controlled by Israel to facilitate even deeper Israeli  control and exploitation of the Palestinian economy. One of its  projects, for example, is to produce a &#8220;Palestinian Business Guide&#8221; to  help Israeli firms benefit from the advantages that military occupation  as well as collaboration between the occupation army and Palestinian  Authority security forces confer on them. As stated on the IPCC website:</p>
<p>&#8220;Trade between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is vast and in 2008  reached 15 billion [shekels] [$4.25 billion US]. In 2009 it continued to  flourish as a result of the improvement in the security situation,  measures taken by the Israeli government and increased trust between the  two business communities. In spite of all this, there is no full and  up-to-date information about the Palestinian market available for  Israeli and foreign companies who wish to find business partners in the  West Bank. Therefore, the IPCC has decided to compile a comprehensive  study of the Palestinian economy, which will offer up-to-date  information about businesses, their background and products, thus  enabling Israeli and foreign companies [to] find partners in a quicker  and easier manner.&#8221;</p>
<p>IPCC also says it works closely with the Israeli ministry of foreign  affairs. It was launched at a May 2009 &#8220;gala&#8221; in Tel Aviv, attended by  Quartet envoy Tony Blair, Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom and  Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon of the notoriously racist Yisrael  Beiteinu party. More than 200 Israeli businesspersons attended the gala  and among the thirty or so Palestinians who attended, according to the  IPCC website, were Bashar Masri, Nafez Hirbawi, Ziad al-Bandak and  Mahmoud Abu Ein, all businessmen with close ties to the Western-backed  Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas. Al-Bandak is a longtime advisor  to Abbas and former PA minister.</p>
<p>Underlining that IPCC is part and parcel of the Israeli occupation, the  organization&#8217;s CEO is none other than Israeli Lt. Col (ret) Avi Nudelman  who, according to his resume on the IPCC website, spent most of his  military career either in intelligence or as a military ruler in the  occupied West Bank. In 1998 Nudelman &#8220;served as the head of the security  coordination office (DCO) in the Ramallah district, and later the head  of the liaison for the Palestinian security apparatus in the West Bank.&#8221;  From 2003-06, Nudelman &#8220;served in the Strategic Division in the IDF  [Israeli army] as the head of the Palestinian branch,&#8221; according to the  IPCC website.</p>
<p>Preceding Nudelman as head of the IPCC was Ofir Gendleman, long an  Israeli diplomat, who was appointed last May by Israeli Prime Minister  Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel&#8217;s &#8220;Arabic-language spokesman for public  diplomacy.&#8221; No other staff or board members are listed on the IPCC  website.</p>
<p>As The Electronic Intifada also reported on 30 December, the Boycott,  Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) specifically  criticized Masri&#8217;s Rawabi project for decisions that &#8220;undermine the  boycott campaign and principles of national consensus among  Palestinians, as well as promot[ing] a &#8216;business-as-usual&#8217; approach to  Israel.&#8221;</p>
<p>Masri&#8217;s cooperation with the Israeli government to deepen Israeli  involvement in the West Bank stands in contrast with recent confirmation  in a 2008 cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv, made public by  Wikileaks, that Israel operated a policy of deliberately keeping the  economy of the besieged Gaza Strip &#8220;on the brink of collapse&#8221; (&#8220;<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/spesial/wikileaksdokumenter/article3972840.ece">Cashless in Gaza?</a>&#8220;).  One of the architects of the policy was senior Israeli government  advisor Dov Weisglass who notoriously explained in 2006 that &#8220;the idea  is to put the Palestinians [in Gaza] on a diet but not to make them die  of hunger&#8221; (&#8220;<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/apr/16/israel">Gaza on the brink of explosion as aid cut-off starts to bite</a>,&#8221; <em>The Observer</em>, 16 April 2006).</p>
<p>Masri previously confirmed to The Electronic Intifada reports that he  had hired Weisglass, now a private attorney, to assist Masri in a failed  bid to purchase a financially-troubled Israeli settlement housing  project in Jabal Mukaber, occupied East Jerusalem. Masri, however, did  not respond to repeated requests for comment for this article.</p>
<p>The 2005 Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions urges a  complete economic, academic and cultural boycott of Israel &#8212; modeled on  the one that helped end apartheid in South Africa &#8212; until Israel  respects and recognizes Palestinian rights and complies with  international law.</p>
<p>Masri as well as other Palestinian businessmen who promote normalization  with Israel seem to be doing all they can to undermine this campaign,  while making handsome profits along the way.</p>
<p><em>Ali Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, author of </em><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/store/548.shtml">One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse</a><em> and is a contributor to </em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568586418/theelectronic-20">The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict</a><em> (Nation Books).</em></p>
<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: This article was corrected to reflect that Bashar  Masri&#8217;s talk at the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce was scheduled for  28 January 2010, and not 28 January 2011.</em></span></p>
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<p>via <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11717.shtml">ei: Rawabi developer Masri helps deepen Israel&#8217;s grip on West Bank</a>.</p>
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