Nazareth Industrial Park
The First Implementation of a Unique Model of Joint Jewish-Arab
Entrepreneurship
GPO 17 April 2013

Nazareth is the location of the newest addition to industrialist Stef
Wertheimer's chain of industrial parks in Israel and Turkey. On his visit to
Israel, Pope Bendict XVI visited the site of the park and heard from
Wertheimer and Nazareth Mayor Ramez Jeraisy that the industrial park is to
be the first implementation of a unique model to promote the advancement of
Arab-Jewish Israeli export companies.

A model of cooperation, the Nazareth Industrial Park is located at a meeting
point of Israel's diverse populations, in the historic city of Nazareth,
just beneath the Christian holy site of Mount Precipice
http://www.goisrael.com/Tourism_Eng/Tourist%20Information/Christian%20Themes/Details/Pages/Precipice%20Mountain%20chr.aspx
, and overlooking the agricultural communities and villages of the Jezreel
Valley and the Galilee.

The Nazareth Industrial Park is the seventh of Stef Wertheimer’s parks. Like
its counterparts at Tefen, Tel-Hai, Dalton and Lavon in the Galilee, Omer in
the Negev, and GOSB in Turkey, it is based on five principles: exports,
education, co-existence, community, and culture.

Built with an investment of some $20 million, the industrial park comprises
a beautifully designed complex of over 18,000 square meters in a landscaped
area of 14 acres. With space for about 30 Israeli Arab and Jewish
export-oriented firms, the park is expected to provide 1,000 jobs in the
next decade and to play an active role in strengthening Nazareth’s economic
base through the expansion of its productivity beyond tourism and
service-oriented businesses.

While built to benefit the Israeli Arab population of this region, the equal
opportunity principle that guides all of Wertheimer’s parks will prevail
here as well. Firms coming into the park will enjoy the benefits of National
Development Area A, and a package of benefits encouraging the employment of
professionally educated Arab employees.

Part of the operational program for the Industrial park will be the
recruitment of Arab and Jewish entrepreneurs to participate in a practical
industrial entrepreneurship course. Arab and Jewish graduates from the
course are hoped to generate potential Arab-Jewish partnerships of
industrial enterprise that can develop within the Nazareth Industrial park.

As in all of Wertheimer's parks, the Nazareth Industrial park will aim: 1)
to serve as a center for the growth and generation of industrial companies
producing high-quality products for export; 2) to create a local community
of entrepreneurs and industrialists through vocational training and
entrepreneurship courses; 3) to foster co-existence by encouraging a
culturally-integrated workforce; 4) to serve as a gathering place for all
the local communities; and 5) to showcase the cultural expression of all
Israeli citizens.

Nazareth is the largest Arab city in Israel with some 70,000 inhabitants.
Nazareth's economy relies mainly on the tourism industry, which has been hit
by the economic recessions of recent years.

The industrial area available in the city is limited and dispersed over a
110 hectares area, whereby the existing development does not meet the needs
of a modern, developing city. Most of the industrial buildings are scattered
throughout residential neighborhoods and the city center and are
environmental hazards.