Time for TOBB to sit at the table
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 06, 2009 00:00
Debate on the positions staked out by Turkey’s prime minister relative to Israel during the Gaza war, the "Davos tirade" and all that preceded and followed, is sure to linger. What cannot be allowed to linger are steps required of the international community to restore the war-torn infrastructure and ravaged economy of this strip of land on the Mediterranean.
This week, Qatar proposed a donor’s conference to be held in that island nation. Qatar’s Sheikh Hamid bin Casim Cabir el Thani specifically asked for Turkey’s help in moving this process forward.
It won’t be easy. The Palestinian Authority has made moves perceived as positioning to make it the sole channel for delivery of reconstruction aid. That the Fatah-controlled PA on the West Bank would use this opportunity to isolate its political rival Hamas in Gaza is hardly surprising.
The European Union and the United States, and of course Israel, have also signalled willingness to support reconstruction as a means for the "good" Palestinians (Fatah) to gain leverage over the "bad" Palestinians (Hamas). Analysts are still working through the changes the war wrought to Turkey’s political balance sheet. Most arguments hold that Turkey has lost political capital in Washington and Brussels while gaining it on the "Arab street." What that results in that is truly redeemable toward reconciliation remains to be seen.
We believe it is time for the Ankara Forum for Economic Cooperation between Palestine, Turkey and Israel to step forward. This is the framework, a 2005 initiative by Turkey’s 1.2 million member Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, or TOBB, that created one of the most hopeful projects in the region.
That project, now idle, is the Erez Industrial Estate. Under TOBB’s leadership, it brought together the Federation of Palestinian Chambers and the Israeli Manufacturers Association to create this industrial zone in northern Gaza. Before circumstances forced its closure, it had nurtured creation of some 200 factories employing nearly 5,000 Palestinians. Had the project continued, expectations were that employment could grow to 10,000, some 7 percent of Gaza’s workforce. Among its competive advantages: inexpensive labor, Israeli technology and tariff-free access to US and Gulf markets.
As an institution, TOBB has remained free of partisan domestic politics. In this instance, it has the additional virtue of absence from the rhetorical warfare we have witnessed internationally.
The valuations of Turkey’s regional political capital will continue. But the value of TOBB’s intellectual capital is disputed by no one. And it is intellectual capital, not political, that is now so urgently needed. TOBB should be encouraged and supported to put this on the donors’ table at the very first opportunity
It won’t be easy. The Palestinian Authority has made moves perceived as positioning to make it the sole channel for delivery of reconstruction aid. That the Fatah-controlled PA on the West Bank would use this opportunity to isolate its political rival Hamas in Gaza is hardly surprising.
The European Union and the United States, and of course Israel, have also signalled willingness to support reconstruction as a means for the "good" Palestinians (Fatah) to gain leverage over the "bad" Palestinians (Hamas). Analysts are still working through the changes the war wrought to Turkey’s political balance sheet. Most arguments hold that Turkey has lost political capital in Washington and Brussels while gaining it on the "Arab street." What that results in that is truly redeemable toward reconciliation remains to be seen.
We believe it is time for the Ankara Forum for Economic Cooperation between Palestine, Turkey and Israel to step forward. This is the framework, a 2005 initiative by Turkey’s 1.2 million member Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, or TOBB, that created one of the most hopeful projects in the region.
That project, now idle, is the Erez Industrial Estate. Under TOBB’s leadership, it brought together the Federation of Palestinian Chambers and the Israeli Manufacturers Association to create this industrial zone in northern Gaza. Before circumstances forced its closure, it had nurtured creation of some 200 factories employing nearly 5,000 Palestinians. Had the project continued, expectations were that employment could grow to 10,000, some 7 percent of Gaza’s workforce. Among its competive advantages: inexpensive labor, Israeli technology and tariff-free access to US and Gulf markets.
As an institution, TOBB has remained free of partisan domestic politics. In this instance, it has the additional virtue of absence from the rhetorical warfare we have witnessed internationally.
The valuations of Turkey’s regional political capital will continue. But the value of TOBB’s intellectual capital is disputed by no one. And it is intellectual capital, not political, that is now so urgently needed. TOBB should be encouraged and supported to put this on the donors’ table at the very first opportunity