Japan is to facilitate investments to encourage Palestinian business owners to establish factories in Jericho’s industrial zone. This is to be announced by the representatives of the relevant Japanese governmental institutions who will participate in the Legal Status of the Arab Community conference to be held in Nazareth this Friday, December 8th.
During the conference it will be announced that, for the first time, an Arab company in Nazareth will receive legal backing and financial investment to build a factory in Jericho that will enable exportation using the title “Made in Palestine” among Arab countries. Participating in the conference on behalf of the Japanese government are Katsunobu Takada, political affairs consultant of the Japanese Embassy, Nassir Atyani, General Director of JAIPCO, and Tomomi Hirata, JICA office in Palestine. The panel moderator will be Iqbal Dahli.
The Palestinian minister of education Dr. Sabri Saidam will speak about the politics of the Palestinian government in encouraging the cooperation on both sides of the Green Line and helping Palestinians in Israel to reach the Arab world. Saidam will also state the stance of the Palestinian Authority and its interest in developing cooperation in the fields of economics, education, tourism, and culture on both sides of the Green Line, which aims to include Palestinians in Israel. The discussion will cover the risks and opportunities that come with improved relations with the Arab world that also includes the matter of issuing a Palestinian passport for religious and cultural purposes in Arab countries, something recently covered by Haaretz newspaper.
The data of the Palestinian Higher Education Council confirmed that more than 9000 Arab Palestinian students study at Palestinian Universities in the occupied territories. The situation of university students will be discussed, as well as the relationships between Arab higher education institutions both within Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, especially with regard to the fields of research and teaching.
The panel will also address the issue of cooperation on both sides of the Green Line. The discussion will encompass the legal and political ways to guarantee fair economic, educational, and cultural trading on both sides of the green line. Walid Afifi, a business owner from the Afeefi Group and a member of Jenin University’s board of trustees, will address the right of the Palestinian community inside Israel to receive equal opportunities in education in Palestinian and Jordanian universities, and the issue of Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jordan, and Turkey sharing in both commerce and the tourism industry.
Lastly, the mechanisms of using tribal law among the Southern West Bank, Jordan, Northern Sinai, Gaza Strip and the Negev will also be addressed by scholar Khalil Abu Rabeaa of Ben-Gurion University, where clans of the Negev area are under the jurisdiction of tribal law in their internal affairs, and with the clans of the Southern West Bank, Jordan, Northern Sinai and Gaza.
For further details and interviews please contact the speakers.
