RAMALLAH, West Bank — As a businessperson, would you invest your money in the Gaza Strip under the current political and economic conditions? Farouk Shami did not hesitate to answer in the affirmative, stating, “I do not believe there are obstacles. Rather, there are challenges that we must all work to overcome, and Gaza is currently in dire need of our money.”

Shami, a Palestinian American businessman, led a three-day investors' conference that convened May 4 in Ramallah with the aim of attracting Palestinian business investments from abroad. Those assembled pledged $104 million for six projects in the West Bank, but no funds or projects were forthcoming for Gaza, which remains in need of reconstruction and economic recovery after the 2014 war with Israel. 

Going into the conference, Shami said, “Gaza is in our heart,” and predicted that it would receive the same share of funds as the West Bank. That this failed to happen came as no surprise to the Gazan businesspeople who attended the meeting. They had, at most, only modest hopes of receiving any kind of project funding. 

Ahmed Bseiso, a Gaza businessman and chairman of the board of directors of the Palestinian Development Fund, said that investors are always reluctant, because the situation in Gaza is not a good environment for capital investment given the blockade and the political division. He told Al-Monitor, “The economic and political situation in the Gaza Strip after the war does not live up to the requirements of investors. Here we are, eight months after the war, still waiting for the reconstruction funds from donors.”