The 50-mile drive from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport to the Palestinian city of Ramallah on the West Bank should take less than an hour, but the Israeli border crossing between the two cities makes it considerably longer.
As I wait at the airport for the taxi to Ramallah, my colleague and I earmark books and newspapers to read when we get there. Mobile data coverage will be patchy and we have a long wait.
Unhappily, we don’t even get that far. A phone call from the organizer of the Expotech conference, our destination, tells us the road to Ramallah is blocked by snow. Only army vehicles can cross. The worst weather for more than a century means the event has been cancelled, and its 700-strong audience from across the region is disappointed.
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We are disappointed as well. We'd gotten wind of some interesting developments in Ramallah, and Palestine in general. According to the Palestinian Information Network of IT Companies (PITA), more than 10% of Palestine’s GDP is now IT outsourcing. And tech behemoths based in Israel, including Cisco, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, all employ Palestinian engineers and companies in their businesses.
Cheaper compared to Israeli companies but just as local, Ramallah is rapidly becoming a tech hub like many other global cities. It hosts weekly hackathons, meetups and startup weekends, and many accelerators, seed camps and VC funds operate there. In many respects, it resembles the Tel Aviv startup ecosystem, but without the track record, the investment or the exits — albeit the same enthusiasm.
It’s impossible for Palestinians without Israeli IDs to travel to Tel Aviv. As a result, we can’t get into Palestine because of the weather, and they can’t come here because of politics. It's a state of affairs not unusual to people in this part of the world, in fact, for more than two millennia.
Finally, 24 hours after our arrival in Israel, a representative from PITA makes it to Tel Aviv. He's got that elusive Israeli ID and the ability to travel between the two countries.
Like a Mean Streets-era Robert De Niro, Anan Abu Rieleh is the archetype of a young entrepreneur. Smart, well-dressed and eloquent, Anan returned to Palestine after he finished his Master's degree in Leeds, England. He is one of the well-educated Palestinian Diaspora, Palestinians who have sought and made their fortunes elsewhere, with plans to return and change the face of the country, and maybe one day the whole Middle East environment.
The Diaspora taps into the brain of this emerging tech hub by using GloPal, a global IT network of Palestinian companies, entrepreneurs, investors and IT professionals. It has accelerated the Palestine IT sector, confirms a report on the Palestinian Investment Commitment: Palestinian ICT firms reported a 64% rise in global client work from 2009 to 2012.
Image: ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/GettyImages
Palestine’s emergence has piqued the ears of Western onlookers, not least Eamonn Carey, head of digital at London-based agency MHPC, another Expotech speaker stranded in Tel Aviv. Carey speaks regularly at events across the Arab World, in Riyadh and Beirut, and is an advocate of the Palestinian sector.
“Things are moving quickly in Palestine’s startup world," says Carey. "These guys have to overcome hurdles we can't even begin to think of. These companies are real hackers, creating jobs and businesses in the face of power cuts, Internet outages and economic sanctions that deny them access to equipment and infrastructure."
For Palestinian startups these hurdles don’t simply include a three-hour journey to neighboring country Jordan to fly out on a normal (snowless) day; they involve culture, bureaucracy, lack of risk exposure and an ecosystem that offers limited backup plans for aspiring entrepreneurs.
“The biggest challenge facing startups in Palestine is the lack of a risk-taking mentality and a legal structure in Palestine that needs to be improved," says Feras Nasr, CEO of AidBits, a cloud-based (and Ramallah-based) data management platform designed for the non-profit sector. "The legal structure isn't very investor-friendly, and many startups incorporate their businesses outside of Palestine to comply with most investor requirements, leading to more complexities and expenses."
Other technological drawbacks, such as Israel’s spectrum control, mean Palestinian startups are data-deficient. A lack of 3G and Israel’s control over tech imports is another significant barrier to growth.
Before U.S. President Obama visited the West Bank earlier this year, one local Palestinian erected a huge billboard on the road to Ramallah asking him not to bring his smartphone to the city. Purportedly, he wouldn’t have access to mobile Internet in the city.
It seems Palestinians laugh in the face of such challenges. These hurdles aren't quelling innovation. And the community is determined to create something special here.
Tel Aviv may be standing tall as the area powerhouse, but things change quickly in this region. Ramallah won't fail to learn from its successful and developed tech cluster of a neighbor.
In fact, Palestine’s emerging startup and IT outsourcing industry plus Israel’s business acumen could make for a dynamic cluster. The phrase "Silicon Bank" might just catch on after all.
Image: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images