Gaza three decades ago... a "Singaporean" dream

When I first heard about President Donald Trump's "Gaza Riviera" plan, it brought back memories of Palestinian hopes three decades ago, during the height of the Oslo Accords. At the time, I was co-chairing Builders for Peace, a project launched by Vice President Al Gore to encourage American companies to invest in the Palestinian economy to support the nascent peace process.

We had prepared for our mission by reading the World Bank's comprehensive study of the Palestinian economy before Oslo. The observations and conclusions were sobering, yet hopeful. The report pointed to the obstacles to Palestinian economic development, such as Israel's control over Palestinian land, resources, and energy; its refusal to allow Palestinians to import and export independently; and the obstacles Israel placed on Palestinian movement and even trade within the occupied territories.

However, the bank concluded that if these Israeli restrictions on Palestinian entrepreneurs were removed, foreign investment would provide opportunities for rapid growth and prosperity. We also read the excellent study by Sarah Roy, an American political scientist, on the harsh measures Israel has taken to "impoverish" Gaza, preventing the development of an independent economy and reducing Palestinians to mere day laborers for low wages in Israeli factories or supervisors of small workshops producing goods for export through Israeli companies. We also made several exploratory visits to the occupied Palestinian territories to meet with Palestinian political and business leaders, to assess the opportunities and challenges we may face.

The picture quickly became clear to us. When it came time to launch the project, my co-chair, Mel Levin, and I led the first delegation of American businessmen (which included Arab and Jewish Americans) to the Palestinian territories. Our first taste of the problems we would face came when we tried to enter via the King Hussein Bridge from Jordan. American Jews and others were allowed to cross easily, while Arab Americans were separated from the group and subjected to humiliating inspections. We held a meeting in Jerusalem for Palestinians interested in meeting with American investors, but we discovered that Palestinians required a permit from the occupation authorities to enter the city. Since the permits only allowed them a few hours in the city, the time they could devote to our discussions proved limited.

Getting in and out of Gaza was also a major problem. One scene I saw upon leaving Gaza still sticks in my mind: hundreds of Palestinian men crammed into narrow corridors, waiting in the sun for permission to enter Israel. Young Israeli soldiers were shouting at them from above, ordering them not to look at them and to hold their permits above their heads. It was a deeply painful scene. In Gaza and the West Bank, our meetings with leading Palestinian businessmen were hopeful. They were eager to discuss possibilities with their American counterparts, and the Americans were impressed. We also discussed several potential partnerships. Two projects stood out. One aimed to manufacture leather goods, the other to assemble furniture. Both relied on Gaza's proximity to Eastern Europe to export products there. But both failed because their success depended on Israel allowing the import of raw materials and the export of finished products.

It seems the Israelis might have been willing to accept such projects, but only on the condition that the Americans and Palestinians work through an Israeli intermediary, thus reducing the profitability of the projects. Even projects the US government attempted to implement failed. One day, I received a call from an official at the US Department of Agriculture, who told me that the department had provided 50,000 flower bulbs to Gaza to establish a flower export industry. However, he said that these bulbs had been stuck in an Israeli port for months and were rotting. He added that the department was prepared to send another 25,000 bulbs, but that this depended on the Israelis guaranteeing their entry.

This did not happen because Israel did not want any competition from its flower export industry and therefore did not allow a competing Palestinian industry to emerge. After years of frustration, I met with President Bill Clinton, who asked me about the project's progress. I told him about the Israeli obstacles to investment in independent Palestinian economic development.

He looked concerned and asked me to write him a detailed memo. In my letter to the president, I outlined the problems we were facing and complained that his peace team was not taking these challenges seriously, arguing that any American challenge to the Israelis would hinder efforts to negotiate peace. I told the president that Palestinian unemployment had doubled since Oslo, poverty rates had risen, and Palestinian hopes for peace had evaporated.

To my surprise, the response I received from the White House appeared to have been orchestrated by its peace team, not a response at all. At the end of Clinton’s first term, Builders for Peace was dissolved, along with hopes for independent Palestinian economic growth. Over the next decade, with no American pressure on Israel to change its behavior, negotiations continued to falter, the Palestinians became poorer, Israel grew more arrogant and repressive, and Palestinian frustrations mounted, leading to renewed violence. There is another memory from that period that bears recalling. One of the most promising projects supported by Builders for Peace was a proposal by a Virginia-based Palestinian-American company to build a Marriott resort on the Gaza beachfront. After securing initial investment, the company began construction, starting with the foundations and a large parking lot. Given the risk, they requested risk insurance from OPIC, a U.S. government agency that insures investments against risk. The project received the support of then-Minister of Commerce Ron Brown, a supporter of Builders for Peace, and the blessing of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, who saw the hotel as a cornerstone for future Palestinian economic growth.

When Yasser Arafat spoke to us about the future of Gaza, he said that if it had investment and freedom from occupation, it could become “Singapore.” If it were deprived of those, it would resemble a failed state. Israel has done everything it can to prevent a “Singapore” scenario—and it seems to have succeeded. Given this reality, it was painful to hear about Trump’s plan to build a “Gaza Riviera” with American ownership. It reminded me of what could have been, but three decades later, it is being floated with little benefit to the Palestinians.