![](\"https:\/\/ePalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/SamBahourspeakingtoanEncounterdelegationofJewishAmericansinBethlehemlow-res-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\nIt was recently reported in The Daily Jewish Forward (Bloomberg In his acceptance speech, given at an official Hanukkah As a Palestinian American businessman on the ground in the First, \u201ccommerce between the people in Palestine Second, with Israel\u2019s Today, the only appetite in Palestine, Instead of wasting $1M on trying to promote commerce between Encounter was founded by two rabbinical students and has two This is not about normalizing the occupation \u2013 far from it. For nearly six years I\u2019ve been a speaker to these Indeed, we in the Palestinian business community can take Sam Bahour is a By Sam Bahour Sam Bahour speaking to an Encounter delegation of Jewish Americans in Bethlehem It was recently reported in The Daily Jewish Forward (Bloomberg To Dedicate $1M Genesis Prize to Boosting Israeli-Palestinian Trade, Josh Nathan-Kazis, December 02, 2013) that New York City Mayor and billionaire, Michael Bloomberg, was awarded the first-ever Genesis Prize, $1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[942],"tags":[35,40,728,729,1588],"ppma_author":[936],"class_list":["post-3970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sams-writings","tag-economy","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-michael-bloomberg","tag-new-york-city","tag-peace-talks-and-agreements"],"authors":[{"term_id":936,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sambahour","display_name":"Sam Bahour","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bca109c333bf6d8ae807746dd512adde46265d37c923f6cd0fc4aab437f8e9aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"1","first_name":"Sam","last_name":"Bahour","user_url":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour","job_title":"","description":" Sam Bahour<\/strong> is a Palestinian-American business consultant, writer, and commentator based in Al-Bireh\/Ramallah, Palestine. He is the principal of Applied Information Management (AIM)<\/a>, a consultancy specializing in business development and startup advisory services.<\/p>\r\n Bahour played a foundational role in establishing two of Palestine\u2019s publicly traded companies: the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers (APSC). He co-founded Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (A4VPE), of which he is now an emeritus member, and served as an independent director on the board of Arab Islamic Bank P.L.C. from 2004 to 2025. He currently serves on the board of Just Vision<\/a> and The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS)<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n He frequently gives talks to delegations visiting Palestine on the subjects of Palestine\u2019s political economy, Palestinian Politics 101, and a general orientation to the state of affairs under Israeli military occupation.<\/p>\r\n A prolific writer on Palestinian affairs, Bahour has been published in major international outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, Haaretz, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera America, Le Monde diplomatique, Al-Monitor, +972 Magazine, The Hill, and Arab News. He has appeared as a commentator on NPR, CNN, BBC, and other broadcast media.<\/p>\r\n Bahour is the co-editor of Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians<\/a><\/em> (Olive Branch Press, 1993) and was profiled in the bestselling anthology Kingdom of Olives and Ash<\/a><\/em>, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, in a chapter authored by Chabon titled \u201cThe Tallest Man in Ramallah<\/a>.\u201d He holds an Associate\u2019s and Bachelor\u2019s degree in Computer Technology from Youngstown State University, and a Kellogg-Recanati International Executive MBA \u2014 a joint program of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.<\/p>\r\n He tweets at @SamBahour<\/a>, blogs at www.epalestine.ps<\/a>, and may be reached at sbahour[AT]gmail[DOT]com.<\/p>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5731,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970\/revisions\/5731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3970"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTo Dedicate $1M Genesis Prize to Boosting Israeli-Palestinian Trade<\/a><\/em>, Josh
\nNathan-Kazis, December 02, 2013) that New York City Mayor and billionaire,
\nMichael Bloomberg, was awarded the first-ever Genesis Prize, $1 million \u201cwhich
\nis meant to honor an exceptional Jew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nparty in New York, Mayor Bloomberg remained true to U.S. Jewish American
\npolitics and thus, before making his speech, cleared his intention to donate
\nthe money to \u201cpromote commerce between the people in Palestine and the people
\nin Israel\u201d with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
\noccupied Palestinian territory for twenty years, I did not know whether to
\nlaugh or cry at this seemingly generous announcement. This well-intentioned act
\nis flawed for several reasons.<\/p>\n
\nand the people in Israel\u201d
\nis not hindered by lack of funds; it is stifled due to 46 years of Israeli
\nmilitary occupation, each year of which has been squarely supported by the U.S.
\nEvery single strategic economic resource needed to build Palestine, from water,
\nland, borders, trade routes, frequencies, airspace, and so much more are 100%
\nmicromanaged by the Israeli military. Until the dirty boot of military
\noccupation is removed from the necks of Palestinians, joint commerce can only
\nserve to beautify a status quo which is creeping toward a state of Apartheid,
\nnot peace.<\/p>\n
\nmilitary occupation and structural discrimination against Palestinians on both
\nsides of the green line intensifying over the past few years, there is no
\nappetite in the Palestinian community for more commerce with Israel,
\ngiven that Palestine\u2019s economy is
\nalready massively dependent on Israel\u2019s
\neconomy by sheer fact of the military restrictions that Israel
\nplaces on Palestinian economic development.<\/p>\n
\nand many corners of the world, is to intensify boycott, divestment and
\nsanctions on Israel
\nuntil Israelis feel the pain of occupation enough to want to end it. This
\ncost-based approach is being more and more articulated by progressive Jewish
\nAmericans too, as was recently penned by Kathleen<\/span><\/em> Peratis in the Daily Beast\u2019s Open Zion (<\/span>If
\nYou Want Two States, Support BDS<\/a><\/em>, October 16th<\/sup>,
\n2013<\/span>), as well as by enlightened Jewish Israelis such as
\njournalist <\/span>Gideon Levy in Haaretz (The Iran case proves
\nit: Sanctions will get Israel to end the occupation<\/a><\/em>, Nov. 30, 2013).<\/p>\n
\nan occupied people and their occupiers, I have a much more constructive
\nsuggestion for Mayor Bloomberg: transfer the funds to the New York-based Jewish
\nAmerican organization, Encounter<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nrabbis on its board. Jewish American political pundit Peter Beinart recently
\nmentioned Encounter in his recent piece in the New York Review of Books (The
\nAmerican Jewish Cocoon<\/a>,<\/em> September
\n 26, 2013). Encounter is an amazing group of dynamic Jewish
\nAmericans who are breaking the divide, not by chumming up to the reality of
\nseparation, discrimination, and occupation, but rather by mobilizing Jewish Americans
\nfrom all walks of life, with the bulk being rabbinical students and mainstream
\nJewish American leaders. The group brings delegations of Jewish Americans – Orthodox,
\nConservative and Reform – to the West Bank and engages
\nthem in active listening to hear directly from Palestinian community members
\nand leaders from the \u201cother\u201d side of the conflict, viewpoints that most have
\nnever heard before.<\/p>\n
\nIt is about sharing a reality that most Jews around the world have had
\npurposely excluded from their education. It goes without saying that I too
\nlearn a lot from engaging the participants.<\/p>\n
\ndelegations. As a matter of fact, I usually drop what I\u2019m doing and head to Bethlehem
\nto participate in the program because I see real education and progress being
\nmade. By looking into the eyes of the participants, even though many may not
\nagree on much of the politics, I have come to learn that Mayor Bloomberg\u2019s own
\nJewish American community can\u2019t stand what they see on this side of the
\nSeparation Wall, if given half a chance to experience it.<\/p>\n
\ncare of ourselves, as soon as our economy can breathe freely. In the meantime,
\nand toward that end, I urge Mayor Bloomberg and those like him to empower those
\ndoing the nitty-gritty, behind the scenes education to enable equality,
\nfreedom, and independence to take root, for all of our sakes.<\/p>\n
\nPalestinian-American business consultant living in Ramallah. He frequently provides independent
\ncommentary on <\/em>Palestine<\/em> and serves as a policy
\nadviser to <\/em>Al-Shabaka<\/a>, the Palestinian Policy Network<\/a>.
\nHe blogs at www.epalestine.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"