HYDERABAD: Travel restrictions and sanctions on Gaza are taking a toll on Palestinians pursuing entrepreneurial ambitions. Take the case of Reham Abuolwan, a 27-year-old Palestinian woman entrepreneur from Gaza. Reham, along with another Palestinian from West Bank Sa’ed Qaraib, founded one of the very few electronic-hardware-based startups in Gaza in 2014 named The Walking Tech, which is developing a product based on Footprint Insole Technology.
The Walking Tech, however, has been unable to procure electronic devices like motion sensors, micro-controller, and wireless charging system to develop a prototype of their product. All of this owing to restrictions placed by Israel on import of electronic equipment to Gaza, as these equipment can also be used to develop bombs.
On her part, Reham says, “Gaza has several bright minds who are interested in setting up tech-startups. Most of the startups in Gaza are into developing software tools or mobile apps as it is close to impossible to venture into any other domain which requires costly hardware or electronic devices. Even the handful of accelerators and incubators in Gaza are poorly funded and provide space to startups that do not require much financial or infrastructural support.”
Travel restrictions
Travel restrictions also have a significant impact in the startup sector. Last year, Reham’s startup was selected by accelerators located in Italy and Netherlands and was also extended an invite to attend a conference for startups in Istanbul. This year, she was invited to GITEX Technology Week exhibition in Dubai. However, she could not attend either of these events due to travel restrictions.
Since the invites are extended usually 2-3 weeks before the last date, the time is not enough to apply for permit to Israel government to travel through Erez border between Gaza and Israel, which takes at least 60 days to process. The other border between Gaza and Egypt-Rafah, usually stays closed most part of the year. Since 2015, Reham says, she has travelled four times outside of Gaza — twice to US for conferences for which US Consulate in Jerusalem helped in getting permit and twice to West Bank.