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Nov. 4, 2005
Forming business partnerships
Jewish and Arab teens profit from joint endeavor through a program
of understanding.
SIMON GRIVER ISRAEL PRESS SERVICE
Yousef Khlaili and Ziv Atia are part of a team of Galilee teenagers
who recently developed a new hat which cools the wearer through
a strip of ice around the rim. But while entrepreneurship, even
among high school students, is unexceptional in 21st-century high-tech
Israel, what is remarkable is that the student team is comprised
of Arabs and Jews.
Khlaili and Atia are among the 24 10th and 11th graders (12 Jewish
and 12 Arab) who participated in the Young Entrepreneurs program
last year. Part of the Abraham Fund initiative Mirkam (Tapestry),
the program includes the Jewish city of Karmiel and the neighboring
El Sharur Arab local council. Delta Galil Industries, one of Israel's
largest textiles companies, is also involved as a sponsor, as are
a number of government agencies and not-for-profit organizations.
On the surface, the Bet Hakerem Valley in the central Galilee is
one of northern Israel's most delightful regions, with breathtaking
mountain views. The social landscape, however, is not always as
harmonious and tranquil as the physical landscape. At best, the
valley's Arab and Jewish communities keep to themselves, particularly
since the riots that erupted in October 2000, which resulted in
the shooting by police of 13 Israeli Arab protestors.
"Mirkam is a major initiative to develop Israel's Bet Hakerem
Valley in the central Galilee as a model for regional Jewish-Arab
co-operation and interdependence," explained Amnon Be'eri Sulitzeanu,
director of Israel Operations at the Abraham Fund.
"The main objective of this effort, which encompasses 31 Jewish
and 15 Arab towns and cities and involves 112,000 Arab and 74,000
Jewish residents, is to encourage collaboration on a broad range
of economic and social issues, such as infrastructure planning and
industrial development. Educational programs, such as Young Entrepreneurs,
are one way that Mirkam seeks to achieve its goals."
"Mirkam is developing cadres of active local and regional leadership
among the 160,000 people living in the Bet Hakerem Valley, about
half of whom are Jewish and half Arab," said Basem Kanane,
Galilee Mirkam initiative manager for the Abraham Fund. "This
project is strengthening and deepening emerging grassroots activities
with an emphasis on formal, as well as informal, education and enrichment
programs."
The Young Entrepreneurs program is one of the most innovative components
of Mirkam, bringing together Jewish and Arab schoolchildren from
the ORT Horovitz High School in Karmiel and the Shgaour High School
in Majd El-Krum. Since its inception in 2002, the program has not
only made a profit for its student participants, but, more significantly,
has brought Jewish and Arab teenagers together.
"To be honest, I was a bit disappointed in the coexistence
aspects of the program," explained Khlaili, an Arab-Israeli
citizen from Majd El-Krum. "I had very high expectations and
thought that within a few weeks, we would all be best friends. Of
course, it didn't turn out that way. I realized that there are a
lot of differences – political, cultural and, of course, there's
the language barrier. At first, we would sit in separate groups
but eventually we did chill out and I have made some Jewish friends
who I visit in Karmiel."
From the Jewish perspective, Atia admits that he was attracted to
the Young Entrepreneurs program first and foremost because he loves
the idea of business.
"I even feared that the coexistence component would be unpleasant,"
he recalled. "But as it turned out, I enjoyed getting to know
the Arab students. They're much more like us than I thought."
For the female participants, though, there was a larger social gap
to bridge. Doaa Ayoub, a 17-year-old Muslim girl from Majd El-Krum,
said that although she made good friends in the classroom, her family
would not allow her to go into Karmiel at night. Dorit Yusipovich
of the ORT Horovitz school in Karmiel said how much she enjoyed
meeting her peers in Majd El-Krum and that the program made her
understand that coexistence is possible, although more complicated
than she first thought.
Mohammed Sgaier, the administrative director and co-ordinator of
Young Entrepreneurs at Shgaour High School, explained that he had
just returned from Germany with eight students (four Arabs and four
Jews), who took part in the 2003/'04 Young Entrepreneurs program.
They were invited to the city of Soest, where they met with their
peers from Bosnia and Germany to discuss the role of religion in
war and promoting peace.
"I saw that when young people spend the entire day together,
then they really gel and get to know each other in a meaningful
way," said Sgaier.
"Although this is a regional project," said Kanane, "the
idea is that it can act as a pilot program for the rest of the country.
It is a mark of Mirkam's success that other nearby regional councils,
such as Misgav and Wadi Ara, have shown interest in implementing
the program."
Shmuel Cohen, co-ordinator of the program at ORT Horovitz, believes
that the coexistence aspect alone would not have made the program
so popular.
"The entrepreneurial element has made it much more attractive
to students," he said.
Each student in last year's Young Entrepreneurs program invested
$5 each and received a $40 return from Delta Galil, which will now
try to market the "cooling" hat the teens developed.
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