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2010-12-21 12:09:07
By DANIEL ESTRIN, Associated Press Daniel Estrin, Associated Press Fri Dec
17, 11:56 am ET
HOD HASHARON, Israel Within the pastel walls of a modest suburban office,
Israeli high-tech workers have accomplished a feat that still eludes their
political leaders: They have created a partnership with the Palestinians.
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks may be stalled, but that hasn't stopped a small
but steady trickle of Israeli technology companies from seeking to work with
people on the other side of the decades-old conflict.
Israeli CEOs say it's their way of bringing a little bit of peace to their
troubled corner of the world. But the real reason they're hiring Palestinians,
they acknowledge, is because it simply makes good business sense.
Israel's high-tech industry is among the country's crowning achievements.
Israel has the most start-ups per capita in the world and has helped produce
such game-changing innovations as instant messaging and Internet telephony.
Many Israeli tech firms send work offshore to eastern Europe, India or China.
In the past three years, however, some have turned to Palestinian engineers and
programmers. They are cheaper, ambitious, work in the same time zone, and
surprisingly to many Israelis are remarkably similar to them.
"The cultural gap is much smaller than we would think," said Gai Anbar, chief
executive of Comply, an Israeli start-up in this central Israeli town that
develops software for global pharmaceutical companies like Merck and Teva.
At a previous job, he worked with engineers in India and eastern Europe, but
found communication difficult. So in 2007, when he was looking to outsource
work at his new start-up, he turned to Palestinian engineers. He said they
speak like Israelis do they are direct and uninhibited. Today, Comply employs
four Palestinians.
Palestinian engineers have also warmed up to the idea. "I doubt you would find
a company who says, 'I am closed for business'" to Israelis, said Ala Alaeddin,
chairman of the Palestinian Information Technology Association.
If there is hesitation, it's in marketing Israeli products under a Palestinian
name to tap into larger Arab markets off-limits to them. "We're looking for a
partnership ... not one side benefits from the other side," Alaeddin said.
"We have a window of opportunity to demonstrate our skills," said Murad
Tahboub, CEO of Asal Technologies, a Palestinian outsourcing company that works
with Comply and a handful of other Israeli-based companies. "The more people
know about us ... the more comfortable they will be in doing business with us."
This is easier said than done. Comply's office in Hod Hasharon is only about 20
miles (30 kilometers) from Asal Technologies in the West Bank city of Ramallah
but they are worlds apart.
Israel's military prevents most Palestinians and Israelis from visiting each
others' cities without special permits, citing security concerns.
A network of fences and concrete walls divides Israel from the West Bank, built
by Israel earlier this decade amid a wave of Palestinian attacks. Travel
restrictions make meetings between Israelis and Palestinians rare, and
psychological barriers separate them as well.
Anbar says his company is proving skeptics wrong. One recent morning, Israeli
project manager Gali Kahane chatted online in English with Palestinian
programmer Mohammad Radad, sending him smiley emoticons while reviewing updates
to the database software they are developing.
"At first it was a little bit strange" to work with Palestinians, but now it's
like working with any other Israeli developer, Kahane said. "We are very
curious what they think about us," but they never talk politics. "The only
thing we talk about is when the bugs will be finished, and reaching our
deadline together," she said.
Anbar says working with Palestinians is "doing something good for the world we
are living in," but says the real reason he outsources to the West Bank is
financial: He pays the outsourcing company about $4,000 a month per engineer,
half the cost of outsourcing to an Israeli company.
While Indians or Chinese engineers cost even less, he said Palestinians are
more loyal to his company than workers from distant countries and have a
dogged work ethic. Many gained experience working abroad, and stiff competition
for coveted engineering jobs in the West Bank pushes those who have work to
prove themselves, Tahboub said.
About 10 Israeli start-ups and international companies with centers in Israel
have been outsourcing to the West Bank in the past three years, said Tova
Scherr of Mercy Corps, an international aid group working to encourage these
ventures. Scherr said visits by Israeli businessmen to Ramallah with Israeli
military permission are becoming more common.
Networking giant Cisco says it was the first international corporation with
research and development centers in Israel to begin outsourcing work to the
West Bank. Israeli branches of Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp. and Microsoft
Corp. have followed Cisco's example and begun to outsource to the Palestinian
territories this year, according to Mercy Corps.
Arranging meetings is "sometimes like crossing the Red Sea," said Cisco
spokesman Gai Hetzroni.
Last year's initial meeting of Palestinian and Israeli engineers was meant to
take place in the West Bank city of Jericho, but an Israeli military closure
forced the workers to drag their laptops into a nearby Bedouin tent they rented
for the day. Hetzroni said it was an "extraordinary meeting" that convinced the
firm to go forward with the partnership.
Word of the West Bank's potential is spreading: Tahboub of Asal Technologies
said he received about 20 inquiries this year from Israeli companies.
"We are doing great work for our country," Tahboub said, referring to the
yet-to-be-born Palestinian state. "I believe the (technology) sector will
become one of the pillars of the Palestinian economy."