USA TODAY International Edition
2 entrepreneurs bridge political divide
Palestinian, Israeli find common ground in building business
The unlikeliest of Ramadan celebrations happened this summer in Boston. A group of Israelis and Americans prepared the meal, and they shared it with a Palestinian, celebrating the end of his 30 days of fasting.
Though religious, political and cultural differences separated them, they bonded in just two months in Boston. Each had a plan to better the world in some way, and they would do it by starting new businesses.
Entrepreneurs from 128 start- ups — including six from Israel and one from the Palestinian terrtories — came together in July through the non- profit start- up accelerator MassChallenge. They spent the summer building businesses they had dreamed up, with support from Boston- area advisers.
In late October, the most promising companies were awarded a portion of $ 1 million in grants.
But one pair of entrepreneurs left the U. S. last week with much more. Palestinian Arab Husni Abu Samrah, and the Israeli who instigated his celebratory August meal, Erez Livneh, left Boston with a firm friendship they would never have thought possible six months ago.
Theirs is a tale that shows value in entrepreneurship beyond creating new products, jobs and wealth in the world. The bond of entrepreneurship, they’ve proven, transcends the most divisive cultural, religious and military bounds. “Being an entrepreneur means being a risk taker — a person who takes a dream and makes it materialize into reality,” says Livneh, 36. “We’re people who are likeminded and people who talk the same language. It’s not Hebrew or Arabic or English — it’s the language of getting things done.”
Samrah, 43, comes from Ramallah, a West Bank city and battleground of the decades- long land dispute between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority. Livneh lives two hours away in mostly peaceful Tel Aviv, but Israel prevents him from crossing into Palestinian territory.
Both men are passionate about global health.
Samrah is developing mobile apps that provide needed health care information to Arabs around the world. Specifically, he’s educating Arab women about pregnancy, birth and raising children. His business, called MobiStine, has already created 30 health apps, some of which have made iTunes’ top downloads lists.
Livneh is a biologist and biomedical researcher who developed a way of treating viral infections such as influenza, herpes, smallpox and HIV. His company, Vecoy Nanomedicines, created nanoparticles called vecoys that serve as virus decoys in the body, attracting viruses and making them self- destruct. He was a $ 45,000 MassChallenge winner last month and recently secured a partnership with NASA’s International Space Station to test his company’s technology.
Both had markets in mind for their products far beyond the Middle East, and were immediately interested when they learned of MassChallenge Israel, a program started this year.
MassChallenge had planned global expansion since its launch in 2010, says founder John Harthorne; Israel proved a natural starting place. The nation had a thriving start- up scene, a well- educated populace, a plethora of Nobel laureates and the most patents per capita in the world. In addi- tion, Harthorne had friends from business school there, and a network of Israeli- Americans in Boston.
What he didn’t expect was that Palestinian companies would apply for MassChallenge Israel. Even more unexpected was the openness of his Israeli friends vetting the applications to considering them, and the willingness of MassChallenge Israel investors — mostly members of Boston’s Jewish population — to fund Samrah’s trip once he was chosen.
“I was so thrilled,” Harthorne says. “It was really an affirmation of the underlying hypothesis of MassChallenge. Entrepreneurs are willing to take on problems that no one else wants, without any expectation of personal gain out of it. We don’t deal with what is differentiating us but on what aligns us together.”
Samrah’s and Livneh’s bond grew strong during Ramadan, when Livneh and others waited to have dinner until after sunset, so Samrah could join them. MassChallenge supporters frequently planned networking events and gatherings for the Middle East contingency, which had no family or connections in Boston.
“It was my new time being in the States and my first time to fast without my family,” Samrah says. “I felt lonely during Ramadan seeing people eating and drinking. But my friends made a dinner and invited me, and we celebrated. It was different, but being with friends is very good.”
The two men are planning ways to unite the start- up communities in their cities, and they’ll promote to others in each nation the benefits of a connection to Boston, too.
They hope their governments find peace, too. Perhaps, in some small way, they can influence it.
“Entrepreneurship is basically an engine of change,” Livneh says. “It’s the opposite of having more of the same. An entrepreneur wants to do something that has not yet been done. Sometimes it’s financial, and sometimes, social changes, and many times, it’s both.”