[pvaldes]

Sorry if I'm being rude, but this sounds like a really bad joke.

"This building is the new place for your new startup, the burocracy is atrocious and humiliating; not people neither prime matters can enter or go out freely from here, and the entire place is systematically ravaged and firebombed each two or three years killing your workers, otherwise is fine."

"Last year this nice new zone is flattened and 'cleaned' of people... 1000 or maybe 2000 people were killed, I don't remember... and now we want you (again) to give us your money and effort to clean our mess. We need reclaim the area rebuilding this new free space ASAP to secure the place. Thanks"

Just being as cold blooded and logic as I can... Can someone provide a reason to invest in such unstable place? Will you advise someone to create his/her new startup in a warzone? Why?

[616c]

I could respond with snark and derision, but the short answer I will give is: you wanna help Gazans, and maybe help those who help Gazans. Socio-political or ethical network effect, if you will.

I know many Palestinians where I live and work. Many of them, even in their place of residence, are politically hampered into living in a country in the Arab world but not free to travel because they are devoid of political rights. If not because of their country of residents, the issuing body of their travel papers or passports, for many this is Egypt, was so destabilized until now Egyptian authorities would reply officially or otherwise to Palestinians for basic requests like passport renewal: go away, we're busy. And that went on for years.

I know of one person I work with who has a family in Gaza. Her family runs car shops and make decent money where I live. They have had their family's buildings knocked down twice in Israeli military ops in the last five years. They go back and rebuild every time. If we praise SV people for handling "tough problems", how is this not indicative of real entrepreneurship and determination to potentially solve other tough problems in ways we have not conceived? Lots of Africa is now doing WAPI and SMS entrepreneurship in light of limited network infrastructure and proving an interesting counterpoint to our mobile broadband-enabled view of digital startups. Shall we dismiss them because they have situations not much better or worse than Gazans in some of those cases?

Plus, the Palestinan expat community is wide and diverse, in the US, Europe, the Persian Gulf, Africa, and Asia. Misplaced or not, many non-Palestinian Arab communities would buy or donate to any Palestinian cause out of sympathy. Targeting them as a demographic could be viable. And frankly, using the famed "hustle as much as you hate" meme my friends throw around, I would milk that for all it is worth if I was Palestinian.

Just my 2 cents.

[moey]

Just to be clear, this isn't in the article. So if you're trying to paraphrase, you did a really poor job.

Also, people in warzones deserve a helping hand to make them feel normal. It's not in conflict currently. Yes the blockade is bad, but technology is the type of startup that it effects the least.

Also providing humanity to Gaza does not exclude one from trying to bring Israel to court for its war crimes. The latter is just much, much, harder.

[wazoox]

To support people of Gaza through something really helpful and not politically laden, I'd guess.

[pvaldes]

If we really want to help the people of Gaza we need first to put the people that killed children, women and innocent men of Gaza, in front of an international trial. And stop voting to them. Is as simple as that.

We need also to stop tolerating to be labelled as "anti-semitic behaviour" to bona fide criticizing Israel for breaking repeatedly a lot of international laws about human rights, each three years, and for treating palestinian people as human cockroaches.

In the last years USA and Europe were repeatedly urged to pay with trucks full of money the last "Gaza reconstruction". We paid for rebuilding exactly the same UN schools and hospitals that Israel bombed meticulously the last year, in some cases even with UN workers inside.

Is reasonable to asume that if we pay again, the new schools and hospitales will be bombed again in the next two or three years, with the silliest excuses.

There is also the problem that Israel controls the economy of Gaza, so there is not any guarantee that the money for palestinians will not be used instead in buying new bombs to replace that were dropped.

I'm aware that I'm being sour and harsh, but in my opinion, and is just an opinion, the sort of Warsaw Ghetto that became Gaza, need a little more that well-meant investors and little kisses at this moment.

[pliny]

I don't want to get into a political argument - but I will say that helping Gazans by directly improving their quality of life (like the OP proposed) is neither mutually exclusive with, nor dependent on, helping Gazans by promoting their cause politically.

It is a defeatist stance to take, in general, that you should abstain from treating a symptom just because it won't also cure the disease and in that sense I think you are working against the cause of Gaza and doing a disservice to Gazans by dissuading people from offering assistance.

>In the last years USA and Europe were repeatedly urged to pay with trucks full of money the last "Gaza reconstruction". We paid for rebuilding exactly the same UN schools and hospitals that Israel bombed meticulously the last year, in some cases even with UN workers inside. Is reasonable to asume that if we pay again, the new schools and hospitales will be bombed again in the next two or three years, with the silliest excuses.

You're unfortunately correct (about the bombing, not about the excuses), but the children of Gaza need to go to school and the infirm and injured of Gaza need hospitalisation, so not building those facilities is worse than building them and watching them be destroyed a few years later.

[jbooth]

Not to mention, empowering moderate and scientifically minded Gazans is probably one of the more productive things one could do to contribute to eventual resolution of the conflict.

[IvanDenisovich]

I feel that casting all Palestinians as eternal victims with no control over their fate until Israel decides otherwise is pretty patronizing. You're basically denying their agency and labeling them as hopeless children.

This is the opposite of what the initiative is about - it's about bringing normalcy to a troubled region, and if you'd read FAQ you'd see they stress the (relative) safety and economic stability of Gaza. It's a far cry for the "Warsaw Ghetto" and the "Palestinians as cockroaches" that you're throwing around here.

[XJOKOLAT]

It is possible to do both

[this2shallPass]

>If we really want to help the people of Gaza we need first to put the people that killed children, women and innocent men of Gaza, in front of an international trial. And stop voting to them. Is as simple as that.

Sounds good. When are we putting Hamas and other militant groups going to the ICC (because their local justice systems are so unable to promote justice)?

>We need also to stop tolerating to be labelled as "anti-semitic behaviour" to bona fide criticizing Israel for breaking repeatedly a lot of international laws about human rights, each three years, and for treating palestinian people as human cockroaches.

Seems fair to hold Israel to any standard every other country is held to. Do it!

>In the last years USA and Europe were repeatedly urged to pay with trucks full of money the last "Gaza reconstruction". We paid for rebuilding exactly the same UN schools and hospitals that Israel bombed meticulously the last year, in some cases even with UN workers inside.

If Israel meticulously bombed the schools and hospitals, would any be standing? They have a lot of bombs and the ability to target fairly precisely for a military- isn't it weird so many hospitals and schools are undamaged? The Israeli military are either incompetent or didn't meticulously target these places.

>with the silliest excuses. What would an unsilly reason look like? Indiscriminate attacks on civilians doesn't seem to fulfill your requirements.

>There is also the problem that Israel controls the economy of Gaza, so there is not any guarantee that the money for palestinians will not be used instead in buying new bombs to replace that were dropped.

I didn't know Israel controls all money going in to Gaza. I know they collect tax money on behalf of the PLO and monitor, along with Egypt, all good coming in (excluding those that are smuggled in of course). It's worth looking into how Israel's gets military aid- a coupon from the US government. They aren't stealing other people's money and spending it. Even the tax money they're withholding from the PLO is sitting in accounts, not being spent.

[Yadi]

Hi PValde, I agree with you the chances are very low and stakes are high when it comes to investing in a warzone, but it most probably works better to fight the odds and actually solve a problem as a startup.

I started 3 startups in North Iraq, perhaps not so much of a warzone these days, but still affected by all the drama coming out of it.

The problems I was facing were almost the same when I did my other startup in Sydney Australia, except there were some other odds added to it.

In fact Nokia Maps acquired my startup and it was we had such low burning rate / solving a real problem using proper technology.

So I guess investing in them would make sense at the end of the day if you know what and which ones to go for.

[dang]

In HN comments, please don't use quotes to look like you're quoting things that you in fact made up.

[pvaldes]

Sorry if this had lead to confusion. This is not a quotation, at least not in this sense. I'm talking about a joke and explaining the "joke" in the next paragraphs in a sarcastic (but honest) way, hence the use of quotes. It would have been really rude of me not quoting my text when I'm talking about thousands of people 'cleaned' from an area. Never was supposed to be taken as a literal extract from the web linked, of course.

[tptacek]

I used to do this all the time early on at HN. It really bothers people, so I unlearned the habit. I'm glad I did.