LONDON: Efforts to protect the Palestinian economy, ideals, and resilience must be tripled as fears rise that the two-state solution to the conflict with Israel is becoming increasingly unlikely, the Chairman of the Bank of Palestine Hashim Shawa said on Thursday.

Speaking at a session called 鈥淔or the Sake of Peace: Jumpstarting the Palestinian Economy鈥� at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Shawa said both Israelis and Palestinians are worried that the two-state solution will not materialize in the current political climate.

Israel鈥檚 most right-wing government in history took power last month and the Palestinian prime minister accused it of blocking 鈥渆ven the most non-violent ways of fighting the occupation.鈥�

Shawa said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e all worried that we鈥檙e seeing almost the end of a two-state solution. And we saw with the recent elections in Israel what鈥檚 going on, and I don鈥檛 know where things are going. 

鈥淓veryone鈥檚 waiting and seeing, but things don鈥檛 look good.

鈥淪o that鈥檚 why we must raise the alarm. However, not in a state of panic, but to double and triple our efforts to protect our ideals, our values of democracy, international law, [and to] protect the economy and our resilience.鈥�

He said that for every $1 of aid that Palestine had received, there had been $2.50 to $3 of investment by the private sector.

He added: 鈥淒on鈥檛 forget, there are 5 million Palestinians on the ground that are still there day in, day out, taking their kids to school, educating their kids and investing their capital and their wealth into their businesses from the small to the big, and that is not going to end.

鈥淭hat gives us hope and is something that the bank with its partners has been scaling up on all levels.鈥�

Shawa added that he was proud to say that the bank is the first to be gender-balanced at board level in the Middle East and North Africa region.

鈥淚f more women are in policymaking, decision-making, impactful jobs, whether it鈥檚 in government or private sector, you can get transformational change,鈥� he said.

The chairman added that structuring the bank in that way proves that you can do good, be gender-balanced, make lots of profit, succeed, and be more resilient 鈥渆ven under a terrible occupation that strips you from freedoms.鈥�

He said: 鈥淲omen suffer the worst from the occupation in terms of the issues that they face under any military conflict. They always suffer the worst.

鈥淏y including them in the economy, by giving them access to finance, empowering them, making them more involved in decision making, that gives you a balanced approach to running the business and solving problems.鈥�