(16 Jul 2025)
WEST BANK BUSINESS
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 2:55
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ramallah, West Bank – 11 July 2025
1. Wide of Ahmed Salah, from Jenin, standing behind his stall at an expo in the West bank city of Ramallah displaying his products of jarred goods
2. Close up of honey glass jars
3. Tilt up of Salah’s products
4. Various of Salah behind his stall
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmed Salah, small-batch producer:
"I was working in the construction sector in Israel. When the war started and the closures happened, my work stopped. But I’m someone who can’t stay without work, so I thought of starting a project. My mother encouraged me to start making pickles and other jarred goods."
6. Wide of Salah at exhibition of handmade products
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmed Salah, small-batch producers:
"I have bees, and I produce honey. At first, beekeeping was just a hobby for me. Before the war, I had a limited number of beehives. But after the war, I increased them until I had 25 beehives producing honey. What started as a hobby has now become an additional source of income."
8. Saleh offering customers to taste some products
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Rozaleen Awadeh, Nablus resident:
"It’s a national product, made by Palestinian hands. We love supporting people working in this field and supporting our Palestinian products, which we’ve always strived to preserve — and we’ll continue to do so."
10. Mid of pickles
11. Saleh selling products to customers
12. Various of pickle in plastic bottles, jarred food
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmed Salah, small-batch producers:
"We face many difficulties when participating in exhibitions. The roads and checkpoints are hard to pass through. Sometimes, we’re forced to find accommodation to stay the night, which is expensive. And if we decide to travel back home at night after the exhibition ends, it’s dangerous."
15. Salah’s products
16. Banner, reading (Arabic/English) "2025, Pride of Palestinian Industries Exhibition."
17. Various of exhibition
18. Close up of handmade products
19. Mid of exhibitors
20. Wide of Salah at the exhibition
STORYLINE:
After losing his job in construction inside Israel due to the ongoing war in Gaza, a Palestinian worker has started his own small-batch food business.
Ahmed Salah’s pickles and honey are now on the shelves in multiple shops across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, from Ramallah to Jenin.
He also sells his products online.
He has expanded into honey production through a growing number of beehives, along with yogurt, cheese and other dairy products he was making.
After the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel suspended work permits for Palestinians from the West Bank, preventing many from participating in the Israeli workforce — seen by many Palestinians as more lucrative.
Unemployment has increased, and the economic crisis in the territory has deepened since the war erupted.
While some struggled to find new ways to make money, Salah decided to take a chance and and turned his hobby into a business.
"I was working in the construction sector in Israel. When the war started and the closures happened, my work stopped. But I’m someone who can’t stay without work, so I thought of starting a project," Salah said.
Encouraged by his mother, Salah and his wife have reached a stage where their products have become well-known.
Last week, he had a stall at an exhibition in Ramallah, where customers sampled some of his products.
AP video shot by Imad Isseid
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