Palestine’s Olympic Triumph III – Woroud!

As one of the five Palestinian athletes competing at the Olympics here in London (plus two others in the Paralympics later this month), Woroud Sawalha said it all, after she competed in the 800-metre track event today. Although finishing last in her heat, she told Toronto’s Globe and Mail, “My target was to make a new record for myself and for Palestine. I got it!”

Woroud Sawalha runs in her women’s 800-metre, round one heat at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday, 8 August. Picture: Reuters.

A 20-year-old university student from Asira ash-Shamaliya, near Nablus, she has had to train in places like Egypt, Qatar and Jordan because of the lack of suitable facilities in Palestine. Undaunted, she says that her experience in London is just the beginning. “I hope I will do well in the future. The Olympic Games is a first step for me.”

With each of her fingernails decorated with a tiny Palestinian flag, she adds that “My dream is to do something for Palestine and to show the world that Palestine deserves to live and stand on the podium.”

Congratulations to Maher, Sabine, Ahmed and Baha, too, their coaches and officials who helped to put Palestine “on the map,” in one of the world’s most exciting, and inspiring, events!

Pam

© Pamela Ann Smith
This is a publication of investpalestine.wordpress.com and is protected by international copyright laws. This article is for the reader’s personal use only, but may be re-distributed electronically with a credit to investpalestine.com.

Palestine’s Olympic Triumph II

Here’s more pictures, following on from the story last week about the Palestinian Olympic team, below, which has gone round the world!

Members of Palestine’s Olympic team, including the two track athletes, Baha’a Al Farra (men’s 400m) and Woroud Sawalha (women’s 800m) as well as swimmer Sabine Hazboun, parade during the opening ceremony on Friday, 27 July. Photograph: Reuters

. . . And the team, coaches and officials being received at London City Hall by MP Jeremy Corbyn and supporters just prior to the opening of the Games. They were one of the few national teams to be scored such an honour.

The team being welcomed to the offices of London’s mayor and assembly, 26 July.

Coming up: The Paralympics, which start here in London on Wednesday, 29 August, where two athletes from Gaza, Khamis Zakout and Muhammad Fanouna, will be competing.

Here’s a picture of javelin thrower, Hussam Fares Azzam, who made history when he won Palestine’s first ever Olympic medal at the Paralympic Games in Sydney in 2000, and then followed this up by winning a silver medal in Athens in 2004!

Hussam Fares Azzam, training in Gaza. Photograph: strong-voices.org

By the way, the theme picture above shows the first Gaza Marathon, held in 2011. (See Gaza Marathon, Archives, June, 2011. It was won earlier this year by runner Nader al-Masri, who carried the Palestinian flag in Athens. (See Editor’s Note, 4 July, below.)

Thanks for looking!

Pam

© Pamela Ann Smith


This is a publication of investpalestine.wordpress.com and is protected by international copyright laws. This article is for the reader’s personal use only, but may be re-distributed electronically with a credit to investpalestine.com.

Palestine’s Olympic Triumph

Even before the opening ceremony here in London tonight, Palestine’s Olympic team has triumphed. Not only does the team of five include the first-ever athlete, judoko Maher Abu Rmeilah, to pass the stringent qualification tests, the group of five, their coaches and Palestine Olympic Committee officials are winning hearts, and minds, in one of the world’s largest, and most sophisticated, cities. Over the next two weeks, as some 4 billion people around the world follow the Games, the team, whose first event starts Saturday, 28 July, can expect to score even more victories as they help to put Palestine “on the map.” (See the schedule, below.)

Palestinian judoka Maher Abu Rmeilah, who trains at the Al Quds sports club in East Jerusalem. Photograph: Gail Tibbon, The Guardian

Not long after their arrival in the capital, the group was met by a huge crowd in the west London borough of Hounslow, as it hosted the Olympic torch relay, on the final days of its tour around 95 per cent of Great Britain. Hounslow is twinned with Palestine’s administrative capital, Ramallah, and both the borough’s mayor, Councillor Pritam Grewal, and its residents seemed eager to combine their moment in the UK’s spotlight with the team. Scores of pictures were taken as Palestine’s athletics coach, Majed Abu Marahil, officially presented the Mayor with a gift on behalf of all Palestinians. On Friday, the Olympians were received by about 60 enthusiasts at no less a centre of attention than London City Hall itself.

Palestinian Olympic athletes and officials joined the Mayor of Hounslow, Councillor Pritam Grewal, on Tuesday, 24 July, to welcome the Olympic torch to the London borough. Credit: Hounslow Ramallah Twinning Association.

The team consists of Abu Rmeilah, and four others who have been invited by the International Olympic Committee: Baha Al-Farra, a 400-metre runner; Woroud Sawalha, an 800-metre runner; Sabine Hazboun, a 50-metre freestyle swimmer and Ahmed Jibril (Ahmed Gebril, in Egyptian), who is also competing in the 50-metre freestyle swimming. Like all of his teammates, Al-Farra, who lives in Gaza, has had to train despite the lack of proper facilities and financial resources, as well as Israel’s restrictions on movement in East Jerusalem and the occupied territories, a situation that means many cannot reach their full potential. But he is happy to be representing his nation.

Sabine Hazboun and Ahmed Jibril, both competing in the 50-meter freestyle swimming. Picture courtesy of cntv.cn

“It’s a beautiful feeling, both as an athlete and a Palestinian,” he told The Guardian in London. “I will be taking a message from the Palestinians to the greatest games on earth: that Palestine exists despite our difficult circumstances.”

Editor’s Note

InvestPalestine was busy in June with a consultancy project for a group of potential investors from the Arab world. So apologies for the delay in posting new articles!

Once again, thanks to all our readers — and followers — who, at present, span the globe from the US, Canada, the UK and Australia to France, Germany, Denmark, Russia, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, the Arab Gulf states, Brazil and Chile, as well as Israel and Palestine.

Nader Al Masri carrying the flag for Palestine at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing, 2008. Photo courtesy of the International Olympics Committee.

If you would like more information, subscribe to our email service (see the box at the top right of the home page), or email the editor directly. (See “Contact” on the top menu.)

As always, we LOVE your feedback and comments!

Coming up this July:

An analysis of the banking and private sector’s difficulties and the implications for production and employment;

A report on foreign (direct and portfolio) investment in the West Bank and Gaza;

A survey of Palestine’s agricultural potential;

And, last but not least, we’ll be highlighting the progress of five Palestinian athletes from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as they prepare to fly the flag at the Olympics here in London at the end of July…PLUS a report on a very brave and determined man, Hussam Fares Azzam, a champion in world Paralympics…AND Palestine’s remarkable achievements in football (WOMEN and men!).

Suzanne Al Houby: The first Palestinian (and Arab) woman to climb Mount Everest. Photo courtesy of The Electronic Intifada (EI).

Oops, I forgot Palestine’s (and the Arab world’s first) woman to conquer Mount Everest, Suzanne Al Houby.

Thanks for looking!

Pam

Tourism in Palestine: Jericho’s Huge Potential

As any visitor to East Jerusalem knows, Israel dominates the tourist trade in the Holy City and in the Palestinian territories. Aside from controlling virtually all the international access points, whether Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, the bridges across the Jordan River from Amman, the many checkpoints in the West Bank or the road crossings into Gaza, Israeli tour companies and Israeli guides, as well as Israeli security forces, decide who goes where, when and how. Despite this, the Palestinian territories welcome more than a million visitors each year, many of them drawn to some of the world’s oldest historic and archaeological sites and centres of Christian worship. But this is only a small indication of the huge potential which the “Holy Land” has to attract millions more tourists in the coming years, including those from the neighbouring Arab states and other predominately Muslim countries, once these obstacles are eased.

The ancient walls of Jericho, the oldest city in the world

Nowhere is this more true than in Jericho, reputedly the world’s oldest city and the centre of the lush Jordan River Valley region, where the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and JICA – the Japanese International Co-operation Agency—are working with the private sector and the Arab Hotel Association to create a new international centre of sustainable tourism. Already, their achievements are helping to put the reality of Palestine’s existence on the global map as well as promoting economic and social development in one of the poorest parts of the West Bank. Equally important, they are also helping to foster closer links between Palestine and neighbouring Jordan and the estimated 2.5 million Palestinians, including Jordanians of Palestinian origin, currently living in the kingdom.

Editor’s Note

Spring has arrived for many of us, not least for Palestine, where the hills of the West Bank are breaking out in ever more patches of green and lavender – as I saw on my trip there last week.

I’ll be writing about that and about some of the projects I visited in Jericho, Ramallah, Jerusalem and Jordan, thanks to JICA, the Japan International Co-operation Agency.

Other stories coming up this April include:

• The Jericho Agro-Industrial Park and its use of solar energy;

• The Palestine Stock Exchange and its IPO;

• The UK’s new ICT initiative;

• PalTrade’s plans to promote exports.

Palestine’s first delegation to the Olympics, Atlanta, 1996; Reuters

Last, but not least, we’ll be highlighting the progress of four world-class athletes from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as they prepare to fly the flag for Palestine at the Olympics here in London in July.

Thanks for looking!

— Pam

Editor’s Note: The Marathon Continues

Like many readers of this site, I was engrossed in the news these past two weeks surrounding the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehood at the United Nations.  And, like many of you—regardless of your views on the wisdom of that approach—I am appalled by the prospect of a veto in the Security Council from President Obama, as well as the sharp divisions within the European Union member states.

Netanyahu’s arrogant announcement this week, of Israeli government approval for the construction of another 1,100 housing units for settlers in East Jerusalem, was the final straw.

The GOOD NEWS is that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have renewed their financial pledges to Palestine—worth a total of $300 million, although this will come through third parties like the World Bank.  Meanwhile, the prospect of yet more aid cut-offs from the US Congress remain.  So, too, on a more positive note, do new figures showing that Palestine’s economy is set to grow by more than 4 per cent this year.  While that represents a sharp fall from the 9.3 per cent rise in GDP recorded last year, it is still way above the miserable 1 to 2 per cent forecast for the US and many EU countries in 2011.

The European Parliament’s approval of new regulations allowing Palestinian agricultural produce to pass through customs to European consumers without duties or quotas is a sign of how much Brussels realises that its own populations support the Palestinian cause.

So, too, are a variety of international economic and research reports, released in September, giving tribute to the huge potential of the Palestinian economy, once Israel is persuaded to ease its continuing restrictions on trade, investment, movement and financial resources for the West Bank and Gaza.  The expanding role of the Palestinian diaspora, whether in the UK, Canada, Chile or the US, in supporting cultural and social projects in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, as well as financial investment and trade, is another positive sign that augers well for the medium- and longer-term future.  And that doesn’t count the new investment funds, aimed mainly at Palestinians and Palestine, being set up in the UAE and Jordan.

This website will continue to chart this progress, even though it is still “under construction” and seeking sponsorship.   Look out for more features in October, on investment and trade, ICT and telecoms, banking and finance, as well as construction, real estate and retail development.  Palestine’s people, wherever they are, are its greatest asset, as more and more investors are realising.

The marathon continues.

Meanwhile, here’s a bit of fun..in Taybeh….

Thanks for reading…

Pam

Tourism: The Enduring Appeal of Palestine

As millions of Britons prepared to depart to foreign climes for their annual summer holidays, one of the UK’s leading Sunday newspapers, The Observer, offered its readers a prestigious travel opportunity – a week’s tour of the “Holy Land.” Priced at between £1,099 ($1,800) and £1,399 ($2,300) – depending on the season, it included visits to Christian and Crusader sites in Jerusalem, Nazareth, Acre and Bethlehem as well as a boat trip on the Sea of Galilee and a swim in the Dead Sea.

Jerusalem: The Home of Three World Faiths

The Observer’s decision to feature an expensive trip to the West Bank, at a time of intense international political and diplomatic wrangling over the future of Palestine, demonstrates, yet again, the enduring attraction of the territory’s unique historical, cultural and archaeological heritage.

It doesn’t just include Christians.

As the centre of the world’s three great monotheistic religions, Palestine has something to offer everyone, including the tens of thousands of Israelis and non-Israeli Jews who visit each year. Khouloud Daibe, a Palestinian architect who currently serves as the Authority’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, is also setting up new museums, tours and promotions focussing on the monuments, shrines and natural wonders that appeal to visitors from the Arab and Islamic countries to the east. In the longer-term, Palestine hopes to become an gateway to the Arab world, as well as, at present, a final destination for visitors coming from North America, Europe and Asia via Tel Aviv or the few open crossings through Jordan and Egypt.

The Gaza Marathon

c. UNRWA

The Gaza Marathon was organised by the UN agency, UNRWA, this Spring, to support summer camps for Palestinian refugee children in Gaza.

It will take another Marathon to get the whole Palestinian Economy working, whatever happens at the UN this September.

This website seeks to look at the prospects for this Economy, for Investment, for Social Enterprises, and, above all, for ways to empower the Palestinian people, materially, wherever they are.
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We’re still UNDER CONSTRUCTION. So please bear with us.

We hope to be up and running in time for:

(mid-September) The UN General Assembly’s 66th Session, New York

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If you would like more immediate, i.e. exclusive, information on the international publication (print and digital), Investing in Palestine, that we are bringing out in September (with a host of prestigious sponsors), please email Pam at:

pamansmith@compuserve.com

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Thanks for reading.

Pam