Munib al-Masri is probably the wealthiest man in the West Bank. Some estimate his fortune at $500 million. The number of occasions on which he almost became prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Yasser Arafat's days, led "Newsweek" to describe him as the "Palestinian Ross Perot", after the US millionaire who ran in the presidential election of 1992. Munib al-Masri is chairman of the Palestinian Development and Investment Company (PADICO), a corporation that controls one third of the business activity in the PA. It owns, among other things, businesses in the food, industrial, hotel and telecommunications sectors, as well the PA's mobile phone operator, Jawwal.
Al-Masri does the really profitable business in the Edgo Group, an engineering and development business which focuses on oil exploration and transport. With oil prices now soaring, he had little cause for complain about his financial situation during the interview. The company is currently valued at about $1.5 billion. It was founded 54 years ago by al-Masri, now aged 73. In addition to oil, the company also engages in water and gas transport, and electricity production. It is headquartered in Jordan, but has businesses spread across the Persian Gulf, Egypt and Africa. But not in Israel and the West Bank.
The interview with al-Masri takes place at his mansion at the top of Mount Gerizim, overlooking Nablus. Al-Masri's mansion is actually a carbon copy of the La Rotunda (Villa Capra) near the Italian town of Vincenza, built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, the father of classic architecture. "The mayor of Vincenza was here and I asked him if he didn't mind if that I had slightly changed the structure of the house. He told me that my Rotunda was far more impressive," he says.
The copy is perfect, with emphasis on the small details. At the front of the building is a giant, circular swimming pool with a fountain in the middle. In the basement is an archeological site containing the remains of a fourteenth century monastery. Al-Masri decided to stop work on the building, and work on the archeological excavations instead, and only resumed construction of the house after he discovered the ancient monastery in its entirety.
The inside of al-Masri's house is resplendent with works of art, from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to Picasso. He also has a Marie Antoinette cabinet and Louis XVII couches. He employs five Arabic-speaking Sri Lankan servants.
In the past, Al-Masri was touted as contender for the leadership of the PA, but ultimately decided to withdraw from the race. "Israel now has a tremendous opportunity with Abu Mazen. I don't think you will have anyone better than him in the future to make peace with. But, you won't give anything," he says.
Globes: Do you miss Arafat?
Abu-Masri:"I was Arafat's best friend. He was my hero. He knew nothing about management. He never read the "Wall Street Journal" in his life."
Many say he was corrupt.
"He wasn't corrupt. The people around him were. He lived a simple life. But in order to motivate people he had to do things. He did favors for certain people. I didn't like it. But you use the same methods in Israel, don't get naïve with me of all a sudden."
Do you feel Israelis can talk to Hamas? Have you managed to talk to them?
"I think they're a large part of the population of Palestine, so you have to talk to them. Israel said it wouldn't talk to them but it has. Just as Yitzhak Rabin once told me he would never talk to Arafat, but he did."
Would you be willing to live under a Hamas regime?
"I wouldn't want to live under a Hamas regime, but that's not the point. A large part of the population supports Hamas and that's how it is. They're very intelligent, they know to handle themselves. I've met them in Gaza and in Damascus, and I have faith in them and respect them. We're very pleased about the talks between Israel and Syria. It's important for the region. I hope that 2009 will be a good year, in which mothers will be able sleep easy and their children won't have to fight one another. It's about time."
You said in interviews in the past, that you lost a lot of money because of the intifada. Has there been any improvement since?
"We've lost money in all our businesses save for two companies. One is the wireless company Jawwal, and the other is the stock exchange."
Hasn't your stock exchange collapsed?
"It has rallied slightly thanks to several activities. But our other companies lose money because of the occupation. That is our biggest problem."
In what way has the occupation made you lose money?
"Firstly, we invested a lot in tourism. Five or seven star hotels, such as the one we built in Bethlehem, the 'Jacir Palace'. I built it, and every year we lose $67 million on it, principally because of the wall. There are no tourists."
But hasn't there been something of a boom in pilgrimage tourism over the past year?
"I traveled to Russia two weeks ago, just to promote tourism from there. They can get a visa to Israel easily, but not to Palestine. I'm not allowed to go to my hotel because I don't have the necessary permit. Nor do I have a permit to go to the luxury home I own in East Jerusalem. The industrial park in Gaza is paralyzed. We built it because we thought there would be peace. We have several hotels in Gaza that stand empty."
What about developing contacts with Israeli businesspeople?
"I was really disappointed by the scant Israeli presence at the business conference in Bethlehem. They should have come, but they backed out. You suspect us now, just like we suspected you fifteen years ago. We were scared of you and didn't trust you. Now the situation has changed, you're the ones who are scared of us. Few people talk. They come to meetings but at the last minute, they say security. That is what is stopping everything, security. There is no real willingness on your part.
"We want to solve the political problems first. Then the economic side will be easier. You can't run a healthy economy under occupation. We have people who want to work with you. I personally don't want to do business with you until there's peace."
So why are you blaming the other side, if you yourself are against doing business with us?
"The Israelis want to show the world that there's no problem and that they can still do business under the occupation. You then use this later for public relations purposes and I don't like that. I am over 70 and I am not afraid of anyone, except God. The Israelis want to say it's business as usual. And I say business is not as usual, and not the way it was. We're luckier in Nablus because we're not starving here, but we can't leave the city after a certain hour. If this is the atmosphere, then doing business is impossible."
The Israelis think you got your chance in Gaza and look what happened.
"What you did in Gaza was the stupidest thing possible. You went ahead without coordinating things with the PA, without giving us the chance to bring our forces in to take over. The way you left Gaza, you were the ones that let Hamas in. Why leave Gaza without reaching agreement with Abu Mazen, who was your partner?
"You should have told Abu Mazen, 'We're leaving Gaza in a manner that will enable you to take over government there.' How you could just leave? You were responsible for the territory. You were the occupiers and it was your responsibility to leave the place in a decent state. Just as when you leave an office job, you have an overlapping period with your replacement, to prevent mistakes.
"You're not helping, and you're not trying to makes us good neighbors. An enormous economic gap has opened up between the Palestinians and you in standards of living and average pay, and it's just getting worse. For us to be good neighbors, we have to narrow the economic gap between the two nations. You have to understand that you can't eat all the cake all the time. Give us a quarter of the cake and that will suffice. Be nice to us and give us the quarter we deserve - 25% of the country. Let us live and we'll become a model of Israelis and Palestinians living together, the first model for the first democratic Arab country."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 24, 2008
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