A critical interview with Dawood Hamoudeh, an organizer with the Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, about the Palestine Investment Conference.
Produced for CKUT Radio and the International Middle East Media Center (www.imemc.org) by Aaron Lakoff.
aaron (at) resist.ca
The Palestine Investment Conference (PIC), taking place in Bethlehem from May 21-23, has enthusiastically declared "Palestine is open for business". The conference, which draws together around 1200 Palestinian, Israeli, and international private investors and government delegations, is aimed at jumpstarting the process of integrating Palestine into the global economy.
While $2 billion USD worth of projects are being planned and inked at the PIC, almost entirely absent from the agenda is any mention that the Palestinian territories have been under the longest illegal military occupation in recent history.
While some are optimistic at the economic opportunities that such a conference could bring to the impoverished West Bank and Gaza Strip, others are critical of the conference, charging that it is being used as a tool to normalize Israeli apartheid policies in the region.
Dawood Hamoudeh is an organizer with the Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (www.stopthewall.org), based in Ramallah. Hamoudeh recently authored a report entitled "Development or Normalization? A critique of West Bank development approaches and projects".
The IMEMC's Aaron Lakoff spoke with Hamoudeh over the phone about his views on the PIC in Bethlehem, and current obstacles to Palestinian economic life, particularly with regards to tourism and agriculture.
---To download a copy of Dawood Hamoudeh's report, visit: http://www.stopthewall.org/downloads/PRDPcritique.pdf
---To view the Stop the Wall statement about the Palestine Investment Conference: http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1654.shtml
---The official website of the conference is: www.pic-palestine.ps