As Israel-Palestine peace talks grind on, young West Bank entrepreneurs aren’t waiting around

RAMALLAH, West Bank – As the media focuses on the latest efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, what is not being seen is the culture of entrepreneurship, small business creation and new investment vehicles that is accelerating on the West Bank, and to a lesser degree in Gaza.

It’s the story of two worlds: another round of decades-long negotiations is grinding along and a large part of West Bank remains poor, undeveloped and very traditional. But running parallel to this reality is one of a young, educated and tech-oriented demographic that is growing rapidly and is highly connected to the outside world, hungry to be part of it and barreling ahead to create their own opportunities and a brighter future.

Ramallah is the largest and most economically vibrant of the West Bank cities, with an international business-oriented culture embeded in a broader very traditional society. It has a lively café life, with twenty-somethings trading start-up ideas, creating business plans and often launching their companies from within these very cafes. One notable element of this community is the number of impressive and determined young women entrepreneurs.

Take Rasha Ali, a spirited 26-year-old Palestinian woman, sitting with me in a café in Ramallah.

“From the youngest age, I never could take directions from others. Just ask my parents! That’s why I am an entrepreneur. I always wanted to do everything my way!” said the co-founder of the start-up company FeeKash, a secure platform that allows online businesses to accept cash payments from customers without bank accounts.

Ali went to college in the United States, at Guilford College in North Carolina, originally founded as a Quaker college in 1837. She was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug in the US and returned to Ramallah with hopes of starting her own business.

Ali is surrounded by a group of lively, talkative women entrepreneurs, all in their late 20s. As we sipped strong coffee and snacked on hummus and pita bread, they joked and talked about the opportunities and challenges of being an entrepreneur.

Two of the women had created start-ups that won a highly competitive entrepreneurship competition by West Bank’s first entrepreneurship accelerator, Fast Forward, and now are engaged in a four-month intensive “boot camp” to get their nascent companies ready to pitch to first-round investors.

Fast Forward provides $50,000 in support and training services, including an initial grant of $20,000 each to register their companies, rent office space and buy computers. The accelerator brings in a series of successful entrepreneurs and investors, from the region and from the United States, to work with the start-ups on their business concept, marketing and finance issues, investment options and a variety of other topics. The entrepreneurs are thrilled that one of the four months will be spent in California in a Silicon Valley entrepreneurship accelerator.

Mays Attari, one of the young women sitting with me in the café, is co-founder of an on-line therapy service called FadFid—Arabic for “to vent.” In a culture in which seeking psychological counseling carries a stigma, FadFid connects therapists and clients in online counseling. Many clients who feel uncomfortable visiting a therapist’s office prefer the privacy of an online relationship.

Ali and Attari were clearly energized and inspired.

Palestinians have the highest level of per capita advanced degrees in the Arab world. Many university students focus on technology. On average, 2,000 university students graduate on the West Bank each year with an Information Technology degree, but only 30 percent of them are able to find a job in their field.

For women, who make up forty percent of the IT graduates, job prospects are dismal: only 7 percent of them find jobs in the technology field.

But young tech Palestinians are not waiting for jobs in established companies — the dream of many is to raise capital and start their own company.

There are new experiments in Gaza as well.

Through a series of start-up weekends, entrepreneurship boot camps, and competitions, Gaza Sky Geeks — the first tech accelerator in Gaza, created by international aid group Mercy Corps with a grant from Google — selected two start-up companies for a four-month acceleration program.

Knowing that tech and entrepreneurship skills are more limited in Gaza, Gaza Sky Geeks has partnered with the pre-eminent Middle East tech accelerator, Oasis500, located in Amman, Jordan. Working for months to obtain travel permits, Mercy Corps has now brought the first set of entrepreneurs to Jordan where they will spend two months with the experts at Oasis500.

I talked with Mohammed Awad, one of the entrepreneurs now in residence at Oasis500 in Jordan. Awad is founder and CEO of DWBI, a data warehousing start-up. He grew up in Gaza and has Master's and PhD degrees in computer engineering and data warehousing. Awad worked as an assistant professor of computer engineering at the Islamic University of Gaza while he worked on his start-up idea.

“This is simply an incredible experience here in Amman. I feel so motivated and inspired," he said. "I have a team of mentors advising me on my business and marketing plans. They are training me in negotiation and investment strategy. They are even introducing me to potential clients.”

At the end of the four months, Oasis500 will set up a “pitch day” to potential investors. It’s an incredible opportunity that Mohammed said he could never have imagined he would have.

Even though only two start-ups have gone to the Jordan accelerator so far, their experience has already had a deep impact on the small tech community in Gaza. Other would-be entrepreneurs see what is possible and the next round of competitions has already yielded a more ambitious and sophisticated set of start-up ideas.

Although there is a deep realization that until there is a peace settlement, nothing is certain, Ali, Attari, and Awad, and many other entrepreneurs, are not waiting on politicians to follow their dreams. They thirst to be connected to the outside world and to create their own opportunities. None of them are waiting for the older generation to figure it out for them.

Linda Mason is Honorary Board Chair of Mercy Corps and Founder and Chair of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, the world’s largest worksite early education company.

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This piece is part of a new GlobalPost Special Reports/Commentary initiative supported by the Ford Foundation called "VOICES." The mission of VOICES is to present the ideas and opinions of those who are less frequently heard in the media, including women, people of color, sexual minorities, citizens of the developing world and young people. These voices will consistently discuss topics important to GlobalPost Special Reports including human rights, religious issues, global health, economic inequality and democracies in transition.