Palestine can be built, one business at a time

posted on: May 9, 2015

I have written before of some of my Palestinian American heroes, including men like Ibrahim Abu Lughod and Zahi Khouri. I want to add my friend Sam Bahour to the list.

Two and a half decades ago, Ibrahim was a respected tenured professor at Northwestern University and Zahi was chairman of the board of a major Park Avenue-based investment group. Sam, the youngest of the three, was a successful small businessman in Youngstown, Ohio.

When the Oslo Agreements were signed 22 years ago, these three made tough and courageous choices. Realising that the struggle to build a new Palestinian reality was beckoning, they moved to the parts of Palestine that were newly assigned to the fledging Palestinian Authority to become a part of the building process.

Ibrahim, who had been an important mentor to me in my formative years, moved to Birzeit University and dedicated himself to mentoring a new generation of Palestinian youth. Ibrahim passed away in 2001.

Zahi moved to Jerusalem where he waged a difficult but ultimately victorious struggle to win the right to operate the Coca -Cola franchise in the Palestinian territories. To do this he had to wrest control of the franchise from an Israeli owner who wanted to maintain control over both Israel and the occupied Palestinian lands.

For his part, Sam made a seamless transition using both his business and political acumen to contribute to setting up the first Palestinian telecommunications company, Paltel, and the first modern Palestinian shopping centre, Plaza. Sam focuses his organising around key issues of importance to the Palestinian American community. For many years now, Sam has been the central resource for information on the difficulties Israel has created for Palestinian Americans travelling to and working in the Palestinian Authority areas. When the then senator Barack Obama made his first visit to the West Bank in 2006, Sam joined the Palestinian business community to brief him about the burdens imposed on them by the Israeli authorities. On his return to the US, Mr Obama told me how much he had learnt from the group.

Source: www.thenational.ae