West Bank Economic Development | The American Task Force on Palestine

Tech diplomacy: Israeli CEO hires Palestinian programmers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - April 22, 2011 - 12:00am

The last time chief executive officer Eyal Waldman had been to the Israeli-occupied West Bank was as a soldier. But when he needed to outsource some work for his fast-growing Israeli technology company, he chose an unconventional solution: hiring Palestinian programmers from Ramallah.

West Bank contractors protest unpaid fees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 19, 2011 - 12:00am

Contractors and their union representatives protested Monday outside the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Finance in Ramallah over millions of dollars owed to them by the government. Union officials said the PA owed the contractors around 200 million shekels (around $58 million) for their work on government projects. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's advisor Jamal Zaqout talked to the contractors and suggested they met with the premier Tuesday to discuss the debt but protesters refused the proposal, a Ma'an correspondent said.

EU opens market to Palestinian exports
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 14, 2011 - 12:00am

On the sidelines of this week's Ad Hoc Liaison Committee meeting in Belgium , EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton announced the signing of a deal that would open West Bank and Gaza markets to Europe. The agreement gives - effective immediately - all agricultural products, processed agricultural products and fish and fishery products originating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip duty free access to the EU market.

Palestinians seek $5 billion for state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
April 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will brief Western representatives in Brussels on Wednesday on his bid for nearly $5 billion in investment to launch a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority's three-year development plan, obtained by Reuters, requires $1.467 billion this year, $1.754 billion in 2012 and $1.596 billion for 2013. "We have distributed the plan to the donors and they have welcomed it," Palestinian Planning Minister Ali al-Jarbawi said. The plan will be presented formally to donor countries at a pledging conference in June, he said.

Cafe culture blooms in West Bank's Ramallah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Mohammed Assadi - April 6, 2011 - 12:00am

While Paris's Left Bank is famous for its fine restaurants and bustling cafes, Palestine's West Bank is not. But that might be about to change. The hilly city of Ramallah, which lies just to the north of Jerusalem, has undergone a massive boom in recent years on the back of Western donor support, with new smart eateries and bars mushrooming alongside a plethora of pristine office blocks. Latest data says Ramallah and the adjacent town of Al-Bireh that it has utterly engulfed have more than 120 coffee shops and some 300 restaurants, with 50 new diners opening in 2010 alone.

Fayyad's road to freedom runs over Israeli law
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - April 4, 2011 - 12:00am

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? A bulldozer destroys a cistern, with only a shepherd nearby. Is the grinding sound of cement being crushed that is heard by the driver considered a sound? A bulldozer destroys another cistern, with only Palestinian residents of the South Hebron Hills nearby and few lefties from Ta'ayush, an Arab-Jewish anti-occupation group. cooperative Israeli-Palestinian association. Has there even been a demolition, if the sound hasn't reached The New York Times?

Israel bulldozes Fayyad's Freedom Road, again
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 27, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli authorities bulldozed "Freedom Road" in the northern West Bank district of Salfit for the second time on Thursday. Freedom Road was funded by the Palestinian Authority, and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The project was part of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's plan to build institutions and infrastructure for a future Palestinian state. The road allowed Palestinian families to access their homes, schools, land and health clinics. Fayyad inaugurated the road in September 2010, but Israel's military destroyed it in November, while the prime minister was abroad.

Palestinian-American Entrepreneur Re-Envisions West Bank Development
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Jeffay - February 23, 2011 - 1:00am

In his chic office in Ramallah, Bashar Masri, believed to be the richest person in the Palestinian territories, is in high spirits. It’s February 3, his 50th birthday, and the past year has been a particularly good one. It is a year that has seen him start construction on the first planned Palestinian city, an $800 million development that will have more homes than Ramallah. And he nearly achieved in the boardroom what Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose office is just a few blocks away, hasn’t managed in negotiations.

West Bank youth watch Egypt and wonder: could it happen here?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - (Blog) February 18, 2011 - 1:00am

I went to Nablus in the West Bank this week to try to find out whether young people there were in revolutionary mood similar to their counterparts across the Middle East. But before I even spoke to anyone, I was struck by the bustling and relaxed atmosphere in the city, famous not so long ago for its suicide bombers and nightly incursions by the Israeli military to round up militants and demolish the homes of their families.

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