An Israeli billionaire has been investing serious resources in creating industrial parks he believes will foster peace between Jewish and Arab Israelis.
Stef Wertheimer — who sold his metal-cutting company Iscar Ltd to American billionaire Warren Buffett in 2013 for $6 billion — builds these parks in predominantly Arab areas of Israel that are suffering economically, according to Forbes magazine. The third richest man in Israel opened his latest park in 2013 in Nazareth.
Wertheimer’s industrial parks employ both Jews and Arabs, and he believes that if people are busy working and making money, they will not have time to fight each other.
“It’s not a Jewish story; it’s a story of all people living together,” Wertheimer, who is worth $5 billion, told Bloomberg Business. “Copy Switzerland, copy Germany, copy South Korea and then you have peace in this area.”
Wertheimer has built seven industrial parks since 1982. His Tefen Industrial Park provides working space for a number of export industries that employ more than 5,000 employees and produce close to 10 percent of Israel’s overall industrial exports, according to its website. Bloomberg Business reported that the German-born billionaire, who turns 90 this year, is planning to build another industrial park in Israel’s south, which will be aimed at creating jobs for the country’s Bedouin population.
By: The Algemeiner
