Building partners in peace

ritories we need more engagement between Israel and the Palestinians and Britain, too, must play its part in encouraging and supporting these links.

The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, in his speech to the World Economic Summit in January, talked about a “peace dividend” that a two-state solution could bring about and how “a Jewish state of Israel and the Arab state of Palestine can develop into an international hub for technology, for trade [and] tourism.”

The possibility of a settlement is not a naive pipe dream. With the highest number of new businesses UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon (centre) in 2012 visiting Rawabi, a huge new investment project just north of the West Bank city of Ramallah per capita outside of California, Israel has a well-deserved reputation as the “start-up nation”. Last month, I met again the Israeli chief scientist, who is tasked with investing government money in promising business ideas. This relationship between government and start-ups is one that Britain could learn much from. Perhaps less well-known, however, is the work that is under way, with the support of tech companies like Cisco, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, to bring together Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs. And, as Forbes magazine put it, they are not just trading goods but becoming actual business partners and colleagues in a process that is beginning to transform the economy of the West Bank. Indeed, they have estimated that, backed by training, investment and partnerships from Israeli companies and the Israeli subsidiaries of American companies, there are now more than 300 Palestinian technology firms employing 4,500 people. That is up from just 23 firms 14 years ago. Building these partnerships is helping to transform the economy and we should not be opposing or dissuading it but encouraging it.

Many Israelis knows that their future peace and prosperity rests on strengthening their country’s social and economic ties with the Palestinian people. This is a difficult time but it is not a time for walking away or giving up hope. Amid all the challenges they face in a land torn by division and strife, pioneering Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs are mapping out a path forward. It’s not an alternative to a peace process, but it’s vital to it. British business and entrepreneurs should get behind it. Ed Balls MP is Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer