Palestinian Business Groups Say They Won't Go to Bahrain Summit

(Bloomberg) -- Palestinian business organizations declined a U.S. invitation to attend a Bahrain conference to promote Palestinian economic development, the first step of the Trump administration’s push for a Middle East peace agreement.

The groups, which say they represent 80% of Palestinian gross domestic product, say the Palestinian economy will never grow to its full potential without a comprehensive political solution. Trump’s peace team says the economic conference will be followed shortly by an outline for a political solution to the decades-old conflict.

“Economic peace — regardless of how it is repackaged — has been tried by successive U.S. administrations and has failed every time precisely because freedom and sovereignty for Palestinians was lacking,” the organizations said in a written statement.

The groups include the Federation of Palestinian Businessmen Associations, Palestinian Federation of Industries, Palestinian Trade Center-PalTrade, the Palestinian Union of Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Business Women Forum-Palestine and the U.S.-Palestinian Chamber of Commerce.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fadwa Hodali in Ramallah at fhodali@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net, Alisa Odenheimer, Michael S. Arnold

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