Out Sourcing Palestine

The Palestinian society is rich in terms of skills, knowledge, and potential. The pressures of occupation and dispossession has also resulted making the Palestinians the most educated among in the region. Statistics show that per capita, Palestinians haved the highest literacy rate and highest percentage of holders of advanced educational degrees in the Arab world. On the other hand, Palestinian economy has steadily deteriorated as a result of deliberate Israeli policies.

Palestinians do export some products such as embroidery, mother-of-pearl, pottery, olive oil, and Olive Wood handicrafts. Such exports are done on limited basis contributing to the economy despite restrictions and limitations. We believe Palestinians can also export expertise without having to travel or abandon their land. Many Palestinians have skills in web and graphic design, film making, and other abilities that can be a source of income for them while they stay on their lands. What is needed is modalities and networking to bring those resources to those who can use them in the rest of the world in a way analogous to how jobs for citizens in India were created to service US call centers.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of organizations, individuals and groups in the United States and Europe and other parts of the world who can use Palestinian skills offered at very competitive prices. This is a win-win situation for all involved. Palestine Solidarity Groups and anti-war groups for example are usually low on budgets and can not afford paying the regular price of promotional materials needed for their work. This is due to the high cost of labor for such things as T-shirts, video, web design, Graphics etc. They can get less than half the price if Palestinians do this work.

We thus propose that there is a market for designing and operating websites, for video production, for buttons, bumper-stickers, brochures, flyers, medals ,and many other items. These can be produced in Palestine and support the Palestinian economy while saving money for global supporters of human rights.

Create new jobs for Palestinians
Help them stay in their land
Support International Solidarity Groups
Minimize dependency of foreign donations for Palestinian NGOs
Create a mutual support relation between Palestinian and International supportive groups

A group of Palestinian Activists began to research available Palestinian products and services that can be exported. We are also assessing existing and needed infrastructure, skills and knowledge as well as potential for other work that can be exported. We will put all the data on a website that will serve as a catalogue for these products, services, and potentialities. We identified local volunteers and a host for this website (at no cost). What we need now is to do a pilot project. After much thought , we decided the pilot project will be a video production unit because:

Its first project can be producing a video that highlights Palestinian products and services.
It can immediately be used at low cost to offer video production services to international advocacy groups, visiting international groups etc. This itself ca build momentum for other services and products.

We are thus seeking support for this initial phase of the project that will act as a demonstration of the feasibility of offering other services and products. Our target is that within six months, the website will be functional and will include not only a significant database of products and services but a link to the developed promotional video for Palestinian products and services. The video production unit would be then the first unit to offer services immediately and at reasonable cost to organizations and individuals. It would employ staff who will offer such services at competitive prices and at the same time help support the Palestinian qualified production staff. To do this, there are modest initial equipment needed. We seek donations of money or equipment to get going.

In Palestine, the Siraj Center (http://www.sirajcenter.org), The Palestinian Center for Rapprochement (http://www.pcr.ps), and with consultation from the staff of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ramallah. We are looking for sponsors and donors (either monetary or of the equipment needed).

If Americans Knew has provided fiscal sponsorship for donations for this project with 501 c Tax exempt for those interested.