Center for Jewish Arab Economic Development

BACKGROUND
The Jewish-Arab Center for Economic Development was founded in 1988 by a group of Jewish and Arab businesspeople who believed that Jewish-Arab economic cooperation and the development of a healthy Arab society in Israel are essential conditions for achieving peace, prosperity, and economic stability in Israel and the region. The Center aspires to integrate Israeli Arabs into the Israeli economy and society via socioeconomic development of the Arab population, on the one hand, and promotion of cooperative commercial ventures between Jews and Arabs on the other.

The Center endeavors to focus public attention on the economic needs of Arab society in Israel in order to create a balance between the two communities and to build a new socioeconomic partnership based on trust, cooperation, and equality.

NIF supported the Center from its inception until 2002.

The Center's activities are focused in four areas:

1. Encouraging businesses and cooperative business ventures. This involves support for small and medium-sized Arab businesses via a loan fund run in cooperation with the Koret Foundation and Mercantile Discount Bank, and creating investments and opportunities for cooperative ventures and projects involving Jews and Arabs in Israel.
   In concert with the Arab Businesspersons' Club, the Center set up a technological incubator in Nazareth, the first in the Arab sector, which enjoys government support.
2. Investments in human resources. This involves bolstering entrepreneurship and management training for young Arab and Jewish businesspeople, Israelis and Palestinians; and notably the Building Business Bridges program (set up in partnership with NIF), which is a MBA program run in collaboration with the Palestinian Center for Communications and Development, that promotes business leadership in the Middle East and commercial cooperation between Israeli and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs.
3. Women, empowerment, and equality. The Center's integrated approach combines training, mentoring, creation of business networks, a loan fund, and public activity to support entrepreneurial Arab and Jewish women in all stages of developing a business.
4. Public policy and planning. This involves developing, implementing, and explaining strategies for creating equal opportunity, directing resources to Arab communities, and reducing the economic disparities between Arab and Jewish communities, such as setting up joint Arab-Jewish industrial zones, along with public education and empowerment. In addition, the Center initiated a program leading to a MA in Public Administration, in cooperation with the Rich Foundation and the University of Haifa, to improve the background of the staff of Jewish and Arab local authorities with regard to economic development.

The Center is applying to the Palestinian Pool for funding for a project to develop industrial zones

GOALS

• Promoting economic development of Palestinian society in Israel;
• Encouraging commercial cooperation between Jews and Palestinians.

STRATEGIES

1. Advice
2.  Advocacy
3. Consciousness-raising

SPECIAL PROJECT: 
Center to Support Employment and Commercial Development (Proposed for two years)

Project Background

At a time when Israel is continuing its march toward a free-market economy, some sectors are being left behind. The most conspicuous groups that are not being included in the process are residents of the geographic periphery, the rural agricultural sector, and the Palestinian population.

Israel is investing major resources to encourage development of the periphery by defining national priority areas, encouraging investors, and cutting taxes. But Palestinian society has not received a significant slice of the pie and the number of employed Palestinians remains relatively small. What is more, most of the ventures focus on assistance to employers and investors rather than on potential jobholders.

Studies to determine why economic development lags in Palestinian society have consistently indicated a deficiency of physical infrastructure, business development, professional training and support for jobholders.  Since its establishment, the Center has mainly worked to promote and develop joint Jewish-Arab industrial zones, in light of its overarching goal of creating successful economic integration of the two sectors. In recent years, the organization has set itself the objective of establishing joint industrial zones to enable the local Palestinian population to enjoy the economic development that such zones can facilitate. The organization would now like to develop a model of centers that support employment and business development in joint industrial zones as a tool for integrating the Palestinian residents (the project to be discussed).

The support centers will develop a focused and suitable regional employment policy and will run and apply a research study about employment patterns in the region. In addition, the centers will help the surrounding communities streamline and improve their employment structure by developing local businesses and directing workers to the new businesses that will be established due to the project.

The centers will provide the local population with professional tools that will allow it to compete in the labor market on an equal footing and to increase the number of jobholders. This will be implemented through workshops, professional training and guidance, job counseling, placement, and vocational courses. The centers will also function as a business incubator that will offer low rents and integrated business support services, thereby providing a savings on operating costs in the initial stages.

The first and second stages of the project to set up joint industrial zones were completed in late 2005. After a number of potential sites that suited the criteria were identified, the organization selected three of them, in northern, central, and southern Israel, and signed agreements with the relevant government agencies for two of them, with regard to their willingness to cooperate and establish a special administrative apparatus for the project. The agreements also specified how expenses and profits would be shared among the local authorities involved.

2007 WORK PLAN
The grant requested from NIF is to develop the first model in the area of the towns of Carmel, Yokne'am, and the Megiddo Regional Council. The industrial zone will be home to small, medium-sized, and large businesses and select public, municipal, and educational centers. The third stage of the project includes the physical erection of the support center site, which, as stated, will serve as a center for business development, employment, and support.

When the third stage has been completed, the Jewish-Arab Center for Economic Development, in cooperation with the relevant government ministries and municipal authorities, will open a business support center in the joint employment area, to provide business services and professional training programs. The center will function as an incubator for new businesses.
By the end of its first two years of operation the project will be home to 10 to 15 small businesses and will provide support and guidance for new projects and vocational training for jobseekers in the region. Initially the program will focus on research and development of the training programs and the services to be provided. Efforts will also be devoted to locating and identifying the program's consumer public, that is, the small businesses in the area. These objectives will be achieved by conducting several research studies, development programs, and vocational training courses and by drafting documents of principles.

The Center's activities will include the following:

• Developing a focused regional employment policy: The policy will be determined on the basis of the conclusions of the preliminary study about employment patterns in the region and the potential of the existing businesses. The study, to be run by experts in the field, will collect information related to the demography of the local population, both Jews and Palestinians. The study will also focus on the types of businesses to be located in the joint employment zone, as well as the small businesses that will provide services to the businesses operating there. The study will also determine the nature of the outside and local investors who will constitute the target population for the businesses in the joint industrial zone.
• Drafting procedures for providing services: The assistance that will be extended to entrepreneurs and businesses by the support center will be given, as first priority, by local companies and business consultants from the region.  Assistance will focus on designing business plans, financial advice, empowerment, and more.
• Planning vocational training courses suited to individual talents and employers' needs: The joint industrial zone project is committed to creating a significant source of income for the local communities. As a corollary, an essential element of the plan is turning the pool of jobseekers in the region into a professional workforce that can satisfy the needs of the companies in the joint industrial zone. The training programs and vocational courses will be drawn up as a function of the needs in the field and will be operated, with the assistance of the government ministries involved, on a regular basis that guarantees continuity and permits long-term business planning.

The project requires funding for two years: the first year will be focused on research and learning the conditions in the field, as well as planning and preparing the project; the second year will be devoted to implementing the project.