Dear Friends of This Week in Palestine,
First impressions last. Sometimes forever. Many years ago, we submitted a proposal to a local venture capital firm that invests in innovative companies founded by Palestinian entrepreneurs. Our proposal was weak and our presentation was horrible. Since then, we have tried several times to engage with this firm, but it seems that its negative impression of TWiP is permanent. Reading TWiP sometime in the early nineties (shortly after our inception), someone commented that we use 3rd grade English! I doubt that this person has ever read it since. Oh well, you win some, you lose some; but I assure you, we always aspire to improve. These two incidents are etched in my mind, but we have certainly come a long way since then.
Many things come to mind when Palestine is mentioned. Doing business in Palestine is probably not one of them. But as Tina, our editor, wrote in her message, “the rewards should not be underestimated.” The hardships have only strengthened our steadfastness (sumud) and our resolve to succeed.
This issue of This Week in Palestine, themed “Doing Business in Palestine,” has been made possible through the generous support of the German Representative Office Ramallah whom we sincerely thank. We also thank the many institutions that have used our platform as a communication tool for their businesses. It’s worth mentioning that after a single (hundred-dollar) promotion of the August issue, we got 25,000+ likes, 203 comments, 123 shares, and the reach was 1,059,593! This is apart from the exposure on our own social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
I am pleased to inform you that the (20,000+ word) September issue of TWiP is accessible online at www.thisweekinpalestine.com.
Coming up:
- Art as an Ambassador for Palestinian Identity (October 2023)
- The Palestinian Family (November 2023)
Please remember that This Week in Palestine is a self-sustaining project that needs your support.
- To subscribe to the online Web edition, to the print edition, or to the current archive search engine (the content of which is constantly being expanded and remains accessible to the public, at least for now), visit https://thisweekinpalestine.com/subscribe/.
- To donate, visit https://thisweekinpalestine.com/product/donate/. (Your generous donation will give you subscriber status.)
Finally, make sure you flip through the pages of this beautiful issue. Here’s the link:
https://thisweekinpalestine.com/flip-305-sep-2023/
Long Live Palestine!
Best Regards,
Sani P. Meo
Publisher
