Dripping pain for the innocent blood spilled by the hands of a murderous and destructive Jerushalaim, I want to remember and bring to light the differences between those who seek to build and those who work to destroy. Destroy lives, friends, society, families.
I firmly believe in the existence of a moral duty that requires the support of those who seek to build and that requires detachment from those who invest equally in the destruction and terror.
This duty requires the brand as nonsense equivicinanza and similar approaches, based on moral relativism and ethical sull'oscurantismo.
routes back in 2005 published this Business my piece of the Erez industrial area. My conclusions were optimistic at the time and the reality of the past two years I have bitterly denied.
Equally valid I think the considerations and the lessons Erez gives to us all and then I want to repeat the article on stimulation of deep and honest reflection.
Factories border in an area of \u200b\u200bwar
Erez is the name of an industrial area resort.
This is a small cluster that extends a few kilometers north of the Gaza Strip, near the border with the State of Israel, in the midst of battles.
Erez was, until a few months ago, an excellent model of cooperation between peoples. An oasis of peace in the bloody conflict involving Israel and the Palestinian people for many years.
For decades Erez has fascinated and attracted foreign ministers and delegations.
industries and factories, in part trasferitesi from the State of Israel, partly originating in the Gaza Strip, or born on the spot, have contributed to the development of the region by promoting, at the same time, the flowering of peace with the Palestinian population, despite the war.
the Erez industrial zone of about 5000 employees are employed Palestinians who contribute their salaries to maintain their families, more than 30000 people living in the Gaza Strip.
About half of the more than 200 companies in the area are of Palestinian property, the other half, are part of mixed ownership and the rest of Israeli-owned.
Last year, the companies have revenues of Erez between 150 and 200 million dollars.
1. the two dimensions of Erez
The idea of \u200b\u200bcontributing to the creation of an industrial zone on the Gaza Strip was carried out by Moshe Dayan in the seventies of last century. At the time the reasons were quite pragmatic, strongly linked to economic cycles. It was in fact making use of Palestinian labor at lower cost than the local labor market, without the burden of having to accept non-EU workers in the State of Israel.
Palestinian employees of companies Erez would in fact have played a regular life, returning daily to their homes in Gaza.
Clearly the cost of this labor was already higher than the then foreign labor markets, but the cost benefits, however, seemed to justify their choice.
At the root of this choice there were also reasons beyond the economic sphere. Erez is also born as an attempt to beautify a border area, wounded and sore, which has been created within the State of Israel.
Over the years, the experience of Erez came gradually, confirming that the development of a particular economic structure would be able to generate positive effects on inter-ethnic social fabric, even in a climate of hatred caused by war endemic .
With substantial government incentives, many Israeli companies, mostly belonging to traditional sectors, such as the textile, metallurgical, construction etc.., Moved north in the maturity of the Gaza Strip and began to use workers and later Palestinian leaders.
In fact it was to create a sort of magical equilibrium. The wages of Palestinian workers amounted to less than half those of their Israel (Erez in wages today are between 62 and 150 nis (a nis, is a. ..) against 154.42 daily in Israel). Yet, given the low cost of living in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian wages if the workers a decent standard of living, sometimes higher than that of their fellow Israelis live in the State of Israel.
What initially presented in part as a simple exploitation of cheap labor, it was however revealed over time, the source of social tension in the exchange across multiple dimensions, beyond the purely economic sphere of speculation, looking for an ethical balance overall.
Erez appears at the end, as the break in the economic context of two dimensions, at first the aesthetic, as a simple attempt to beautify a frontier in the social wounds of war, then that ethic, such as meeting space and exchange between peoples.
The dividing line, from closed door and an obstacle to relations between the contenders, becomes the creation of Erez openness to dialogue and cooperation. Erez, in contrast to the concept of no man's land, is proposed as a land of all, as a space open to cooperation for the construction.
Born in a war zone between the attacks and military operations, this industry very quickly turns into ethical balance of trade between nations. With the transfer of knowledge and technology, cultural exchange and finally to economic dictated by the proximity and openness, Erez contribute dynamically to the creation of new balances and opening new possibilities of relationship between Israel and the Palestinians.
This unfortunately until the advent of Palestinian terrorism in Erez: the murder of more than 11 Israeli civilians within the industrial area has in fact led the Israeli Minister of Industry and Labor Ehud Olmert to demand the closure to coincide with the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
2. Arab entrepreneurs in israel
One of the biggest problems entrepreneurs second Palestinian Izhak Schnell and Michael Sofer (2002) is the lack of complementing it with the socio-political environment.
According to the authors, Arab industry in Israel can be seen as a special case of peripheral industry. It is actually located in what are perceived as the national peripheries. He specializes in more traditional sectors, is heavily dependent on the local market and is in a condition of subordination within the national economy.
Nevertheless, the Arab industrial entrepreneurship has shown great vitality over the years, often exceeding the economic and political barriers and making it road on the Israeli market.
In Israel, about half of Arabs is successful entrepreneurs, according to a study by Schnell, Benenson and Sofer (1999), to penetrate critical markets for the Israeli economy. However, few have succeeded in transforming their networks of social ties in competitive elements. According to Curran
and Balckburn (1994), one of the key elements in the study of local economic development is the level of integration of entrepreneurship in the social and political fabric.
In this regard, the Arab minority in Israel clashes with an added difficulty with respect to entrepreneurship nationally. It has to refer simultaneously to two different socio-political spheres: the intra and inter ethnic one.
Entrepreneurs Arab Israeli capitalist economy must simultaneously deal without denying the local socio-economic system. This dual need is often a source of dangerous and crippling dichotomies.
Over the past 50 years, the Israeli Arab entrepreneurs relied mainly
on three mechanisms to promote their restructuring: the relationship between majority and minorities, the dynamics between center and periphery within the State of Israel and ultimately the different economic policies in Israel.
In this way he developed an entrepreneurial style, specializing mostly in the food, textile and construction, but rarely managed to penetrate the more privileged sectors of the economy.
Arab industry consists mainly of small and medium-sized family firms with an average of 15 employees, often female. Its presence in Israel is deeply territorial. About two-thirds of manufacturing facilities are located in residential areas to the ethnic Arab majority, often in apartments, however, in areas lacking infrastructure.
According to data collected by the National Institute for Statistics (CBS - Central Bureau of Statistics, the equivalent of our ISTAT) in 1992, the Arab-owned businesses accounted for in the early nineties almost 6 percent of the total Israeli companies with more than 5 employees.
A very significant percentage that shows the viability of quest'imprenditoria, despite
the difficulties in which it operates.
3. erez Arab entrepreneurship
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, a major problem for the Arab entrepreneurship in Israel continues to be the difficult balance between intra and inter ethnic integration.
of the issues arising from this dichotomy is closely related to the geographical location of firms.
This business is severely hampered by its location.
As the industry strongly territorial, it tends to strengthen the intra-ethnic integration at the expense of the inter-ethnic. On the one hand links with the social reality of the settlement of origin are essential for the creation of the company, for the accumulation of capital needed and the workforce. Second, these same ties to be a powerful brake on the growth and integration with the Israeli economy.
Erez, by his presence, has set itself for years as the ideal solution to this problema.Non in case more than half of area businesses are still owned by Arabs. It is in fact the most effective way to maintain a balance between the need to maintain strong links with the local social fabric and the enthusiasm to new economies and borders on the Israeli market.
Erez, making full use of existing infrastructure, contributes to the creation of knowledge networks and links with the Israeli economy and promote the exchange of knowledge. All this without the Arab entrepreneurs must give up their local membership.
In its aesthetic value of land border, in the ethical sphere of dialogue between the two ethnic groups with different potentials, the Erez industrial zone for decades has allowed the coordination of the three main Palestinian dimensions of entrepreneurship: the complexity and intensity of networks of ties, relations of power between the Israeli society and the local expansion the horizons of his own conscience business.
Wealth, material well, this experience is a direct consequence of the initial tension aesthetic and economic, then transformed into opportunities for ethical trade and human social relationships enabled.
4. aesthetics and management
The aesthetic seems to involve the business community Erez including individual, or in the management style of local business leaders.
In this regard, John Dobson outlines in his essay Three Business Contexts: From Ethics to Aesthetics Technical-three management styles post-modern. Dobson to the way business is done mostly reflects the surrounding culture, and he identifies three primary cultural contexts that are declined in three styles of management and well defined.
According to the author, there are fully compliant to the ontology of the financial manager. They serve in a consistent and rational maximizing their material wealth. They embody the homo economicus for excellence and derive their management style from that universe cultural Dobson defined as technical universities.
Then there are leaders who are also pursuing its objectives in a consistent and rational, just as the manager technicians. But they did not aim only to personal and work instead in the light of certain moral principles that guide their actions. For example, can point to the maximization of social welfare, or those who are most disadvantaged in society. Final act in a logical and rational, such as technical managers belonging to the universe. Yet, as befitting a certain ethical and moral principles, their actions are not always in line with the economic and financial theories. The cultural universe that affects this type of leadership is defined by the author as moral universe.
Finally, there is a third category of leader. These are managers who operate in a cultural universe extremely unpredictable and relatively unknown today. This management style does not fit a rational and scientific management principles. Whilst acknowledging the need to create wealth and pursue ethical and moral, it denies that this type of rational reasons could be the ultimate end of their enterprises.
is a style attributed to leaders who defines beauty Dobson, that men and women who do not pursue a real goal, but they perceive their world as fundamentally chaotic and unpredictable, where the laws of logic and rational thought are are tight. These managers seek to bring aesthetic harmony and balance as a condition in what they perceive as a chaotic environment and difficult to manage. Seems to be precisely those entrepreneurs Erez.
Trapped in a brutal and senseless conflict, at the mercy of an economy are often paradoxical and difficult to understand, trying to make sense to organize the chaos.
in this enterprise are accompanied by a deep ethical concern: how should be the man for himself and how he should mold the reality because it is better for everyone. At the same time, these men know that not everything can be reached only by applying default logic and trying to impose their ideas rational, but are convinced that their mission also falls into the categories of aesthetics.
Their actions are driven alternately by the courage, the economic laws, by virtue of compassion, the perception of beauty and the sublime.
The impression is that these captains of industry pursuing a mirage, guided by a vision in which the right and the good match.
entrepreneurs Erez act with modesty and sobriety. They ask only to be able to continue their daily work, already hampered by terrorist attacks and the constraints of security measures which all too often shut down and their workers over the border.
In an appearance on the weekly Israeli La-isha (2004), Rachel Ohanna, 46, married with three children 14, 21 and 25 years, owns a small textile factory for 15 years to Ashkelon on the Mediterranean, recounts how he decided to move into the Erez industrial zone just three years ago.
This decision was originally dictated only by economic reasons as the cost of the work was to be reduced by 50 percent.
Rachel was able to quickly create a cohesive and competitive team of employees with which the company was soon able to meet the needs of major clients of international fashion.
Interview reflected the love of Rachel for their employees and pride for what, by the transfer to Erez, now feels like its own creature.
Rachel still speaks of a sense of security despite the war and despite the terrorist attacks did not abandon his journey to the factory. Oozing the confidence in his employees consolidated in long days and equally long nights working together.
It also perceives the profound disillusionment of entrepreneur in Ashqelon see Erez, at the end of 2004, a target of Palestinian terrorism, thwarted the attempt of cooperation and shared construction in recent years.
Emerges between the lines of the interview, dark sense of loss that goes beyond the sorrow for a simple economic failure.
In the same article we read the interview with Viki Biton, 32, married and mother of two children of 5 and 11 years, assistant director of human resources at an establishment for the implementation of greenhouses, located too ' it into the Erez industrial zone.
Viki tells of his arrival at Erez eight and a half ago, she needed to and certainly not driven by ideological reasons.
Determined in principle to consider his move as temporary, she soon grows fond of the new work environment, people.
Viki tells his metamorfosi.Confida as in principle, for fear of the 150 Arab employees of the establishment, was running with a canister of anti-gas attack in her purse and tells how, in the space of two months, a willingness to dialogue, 'friendship, the ability to share common experiences were taken over mistrust. The confidence of fellow Arab life in Gaza, paid by the accounts of personal experiences of Viki, had contributed to mutual understanding and create a shared sense of belonging.
As for Rachel, even for Viki Palestinian terror attacks at Erez in the past month burst in like a bolt from the blue and they are to crack the climate of a company become an oasis of peace and dialogue. Viki provocatively concludes that the search for a job elsewhere is not entirely realistic and relevant, despite the custody of the whole industrial area for the terrorist attacks made with the support of the Palestinian infiltrators in the same factories in the region.
is interesting, finally, the interview with Tsippy Moldovan, 45, married, mother of two sons of 20 and 25 years, Erez administrative manager of a factory producing bulletproof corset.
Tsippy To work at Erez soon became an ideological statement. The challenge is to create the conditions that cooperation and dialogue that difficult to put down roots in reality. In your opinion, working side by side, Israelis and Palestinians, can only foster mutual understanding.
With the succession of terrorist attacks, it is given a transfer
at another plant of the same company, but refuses Tsippy.
Like his employer, Passbinder Yossi, who was stabbed during the first intifada, a Palestinian terrorist infiltrated the establishment, even Tsippy remains deeply convinced of his own work. It does not require that the rightful compensation for the risks they run in the workplace, believes that the only alternative to mutual destruction between neighbors is first in the cooperation and later in the dialogue.
5. the future hoped
cultural exchange, dialogue, knowledge transfer and technology today are the seeds of what could be the development potential of the entire Gaza Strip, particularly in the light of the imminent withdrawal of ' Israeli army. Ultimately, you realize how Erez has been much more than just a very industrial area. Although they were initially, along with low labor costs, benefits, compensation and incentives to encourage many entrepreneurs to relocate its operations in northern Gaza Strip on the border, it is equally true that, in spite of unawareness of the Israeli and Palestinian actors, the ethical dimension has gained the upper hand in this initiative, laying the foundations for a peaceful dialogue between the parties .
If Palestinian terrorism will not prevail, if the Israeli army's withdrawal from Palestinian counterpart will be used to build and not to make war and destroy the State of Israel, it is plausible to imagine the opening of the entire strip Gaza at the Erez path.
So Erez has been the laboratory for an experiment successful and replicable as such in all border areas in the throes of instability and endemic conflict.
According to the model Erez, preventive invasions, migrations, terrorism, relationships, and help distance cederebbero way to dialogue and dialectic boundaries of cooperation. With the latter, from the economic side, it would become possible to create a decentralized dialogue, on the border, as opposed to communication centric, characteristic of our times.
dialogue set as fertilization, at a later time, the centers that have originated and would therefore lead to the genesis of an alternative to war.
path center-periphery adopted at Erez is used to define a theoretical model for conflict resolution.
1. The overall picture is that of a conflict between ethnic and cultural systems more or less geographically localized.
2. This is accompanied by several events at the peripheral level exogenous friction on the border, armed warfare and terrorism.
3. The central systems are trying different solutions, among them a report by setting more or less violent, aimed to give precedence to their own perception.
4. The central systems, driven by purely opportunistic purposes (savings in production costs with regard to Erez) start in the suburbs, its borders, only superficial action, comparable to a cosmetic surgery, local time to heal scars.
5. The therapy is beneficial deeper and unexpected: the communication generated in the periphery, also by virtue of proximity, it extends to the centers. Notice and make clear the ethical consequences of the intervention.
6. Finally, the apparent primacy of the principle "work together to think" up to "think about the co-operation."
bibliography
Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstracts of Israel, Jerusalem, 1992.
Curran, J., Blackburn, R., 1994, Small firms and local economic networks, Paul Chapman, London
1994.
Dobson, J., Three Business Contexts: From The Technical and Moral, to the Aesthetic, «Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies», 3, 1-1998.
Mordechai, A., Hoshvot al avodà , lo al sakanà «La-Isha», 4.12.2000, pp. 90-92.
Schnell, I., Benenson, I., Sofer, M., The Spatial Pattern of Arab Industrial Markets in Israel, «Annals of the Association of American Geographers», 89, 2, 1999, pp. 311-36.
Sofer, M., Schnell, I., Unbalanced embeddedness of Ethnic Entrepreneurship The Israeli Arab Case, "International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research", 8, 1/2-2002, pp. 54-68.
BY Imanuel Baharier 
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