 Hello, good afternoon from Geneva. I'm Mirek Dussek with the World Economic Forum. A warm welcome to all of you on toppling for this session entitled, An Insight, An Idea with Yossi Vardy and Dana Alalamy, two amazing people and very interesting personalities that I've had the pleasure to meet and to work with as part of my responsibilities here at the World Economic Forum. So a warm welcome first, Yossi and Dana. Hello. For our participants to know, of course, a reminder that this session is part of the Pioneers of Change Summit of the World Economic Forum that is happening this week. And where we really focus on the trailblazers, the people that have been breaking new ground around pivotal issues that have been implementing important positive change in their environs, bringing a lot of people with them sometimes ahead of their times and sometimes with heavy headwinds. And I think it's quite poignant or symptomatic that we have two people, one representing the Palestinian society, another representing the Israeli society that are here with us today speaking of headwinds and challenging environs. So with Dana and with Yossi, we'll have 30 minutes together. It will be a conversation. And I'm really looking forward to looking under the hood of how you've been driving change in your career so far, but also what's your outlook going forward. So first, let me introduce you because I think it will already give us a very interesting start. If I could start with you, Yossi, I have known you now for 13 years. So I still vividly remember meeting you in Tel Aviv on my first visit there. And I have, of course, benefited tremendously. So thank you for that. And I think your story is really so, again, symptomatic of Israel. You have a lot of superlatives in your CV and people can read about you on Wikipedia. What stuck with me is that you were the youngest director general of a ministry when you were in your 20s. That before already you set up a company and then you sold it. You were part of the negotiations in the 1990s of the peace negotiations on many fronts. You are an important VC. So you've been the embodiment of the startup nation, if you will. You had a really important exit of ICQ then to AOL, which many people think was really the big moment for the Israel ecosystem to realize. And you inspired many in Israel to go down your path. But you're also someone who is very involved socially. You're working a lot on inclusion. And you're also someone who is very active internationally, working with startups around the world. So creating these movements of startups with your different colleagues in Italy, in Barcelona, I could go on. And Dana, you are the founding curator of the East Jerusalem hub of the global shapers. And so of course, this is part of the network of the global shapers of the World Economic Forum. But you are a social leader and you are very committed. To your society. And I think this is a testament to your commitment. You're also someone who is heavily involved in digital in Palestine. So I think you co-founded and you are the director of operation of Intersect, which is an entrepreneurship hub in Ramallah, which is looking at FinTech and at other technologies and how they can take off really in Palestine. And I think you did that when you were 24. So you're like Yossi starting very early at an earlier age. So really a big and warm welcome to all of you. And I'd like to start the conversation with you, Yossi, around the ecosystem, the innovation ecosystem of Israel. Of course, some people could say, OK, we all know it. We've read the startup nation book and it's well documented. But I still think it would be good to see from your perspective what have been the ingredients of success for the Israeli innovation ecosystem. So looking to the past a little bit and spending some time. But also to the future, because I think knowing you and others in Israel, you don't want to be resting on your laurel. So what is it that is going to be driving the innovation access for Israel going forward? Over to you, Yossi. OK, thank you for this very embarrassing opening. I need to book you to my funeral. So please write the date down and I hope to see you there. And I will ask you to repeat it. I look on the three of us. I think that Dana represent the future. You represent the present and I represent the past. But nevertheless, let me try to answer you with a twist. I think that the status of the high tech in Israel is by now it's a very well known story. We have flow stream of visitors to Israel every day. You have here visitors from industry, from government, from companies, from startups, from investors trying to figure what do we give to our young people to what we put in the water or what we give them to smoke. And by now I think there is an agreement that this is a mixture of support of the industry, by the government, by a very active VC ecosystem, et cetera. But more important and very illusive and very tricky is the culture, the culture of innovation, the culture and the heritage. The Israeli kids are being pushed by their very aggressive mothers from the age of six to go and accomplish all the things that those mothers expected from their husband which failed to deliver and they want to relive it from the kids. So at home, you are being told that you are going to school and you better come back with at least one Nobel Prize. So you have this very active culture. But I want to mention something which is very important that while the digital economy creates a lot of benefits, benefits it act as an anti-equalizer in the society. These benefits split the society to two parts, to a smaller part which benefit and bigger part which is seeking to get into it. But unable in Israel, about 10% of the population of the labor force is engaged in the high tech. And this is the highest number in the world. But 90% are not part of it. And therefore, there is a growing awareness of the industry on the role the industry should play in wider inclusion. It's both a moral obligation but also self-interest. If we are not going to do it, we are going to be a group of small kind of digital oligarchs who are totally not connected to the real world. And this cannot be, especially in the time corona, the corona is coloring this difference in very strong colors and weakening the weak elements of society. So this thing which I called radical inclusion, which means how we bring all fragments of society into the game is very, very important. I would love to go into more detail on what you're doing on this radical inclusion idea to just demonstrate a little bit to our participants some of the things you've been doing for decades now, which I think are important. But before I do that, I'd like to have a follow-up question to you more on the business side. Looking forward, as you look at, you still, I think, are an active VC unless you've stopped in the past few months. So on the business side, what do you think are the sectors that Israel should be focusing on in terms of innovation? Or are we just remaining with what's been going on? You know, this year will be my 51st year since I created my first company, which I created in 69. So now it's 51 year. And the most important thing I learned through this years that the idea and the sector are not important. What is important is the execution. And to get good execution, there is only one component. And this is the quality of the people. So when I invest, I'm not focusing on the sector. Sure, I don't like to invest in sectors which I don't understand anything. Even when I invest in sectors which I think I understand, half of my investments are going sour. But so at least I try to do things which I'm cheating myself that I understand. But I know one thing, if you have people which are number one, very talented, top talented. Top talent is essential, and it's a great asset. Number two, personal virtues. Personal virtue are the top of top importance. You want people who are good, who are dedicated, who are humble, who are not controlled by their ego, and ethical and can collaborate with other people. And the third thing which is very important is the passion, the enthusiasm which drive the thing. So when I invest, I look for people with these three things, and the rest will follow. And even if I find them, sometime maybe 5%, I disappoint with my choices. And 50%, the investment is not going anywhere. Thanks. Dana, if I could go to you, I've been traveling to Palestine, to Ramallah, and other places now also for, I think, 13 years at the same time. And so I've always been thinking that this is a very thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. I've been also seeing a lot of entrepreneurs that were able to then enlarge their activities and are based in between Ramallah and Dubai, for example, and really have been able to grow their companies into regional actors and players. And I think it's just one of those ecosystems which is still in a stealth mode to a lot of the people in the global audience, or among the global participants that we have today on the line. And so if you were to describe the digital Palestinian, the Palestinian digital ecosystem for the participants that are interested, how would you describe it? Thank you so much, Merrick, and for the introduction previously. Yossi, I just wanted to touch on one point that you mentioned. You said that you represent the past, Merrick, present, and on the future. And without the experts, there will be no future. And I think this connects me to how interested I am in the title of this session, an insight, an idea, because us, the future generation, will gather all these insights from you guys, and then we will translate it into the future and how to execute it. And one of my professors actually, from the past, once told me, it's when you talk about your work that you understand what you're actually doing. I think these summits and these everything, the initiatives that WEF is doing is allowing us to understand how to execute these insights into action for the future. Merrick, to answer your question, first, I'd like to clarify that I'm paying particular attention not to use the word ecosystem to define the Palestinian text scene yet, because it's important to know that it's still in its early stage compared to the Israeli or other ecosystems around the world. It's definitely very unique. It is fragmented, but it's maturing. I'm just going to give you a bit of an overview of the situation in Palestine. So it's a population of 5.25 million people with a 97% literacy rate. And each year, we have around 34,000 university graduates, of which 2,500 studied engineering and IT. So as you can see, it's a tremendously educated population, however, the unemployment rate of these graduates is 50%, and half of these students are women. So we're talking about a very young population where 30% is under the age of 25. And I'm one of them, I'm 25, and I spent a fortune on my education in leading international centers of innovation in London, Tokyo, New York. And I put an investment that would have taken me 30 years to pay with an average salary in Palestine. Yet, I still struggled to find a job six months after graduation. So this is when I decided to create my own. And when I talk about the startup ecosystem, I'm talking from personal experience of someone who had to create their business. And I became founder of an innovation hub in Palestine with a mandate to build and empower this innovation ecosystem and support the startup scene. And one of the challenges we found while building the foundation for this business is that there's no pipeline in Palestine. So we tried to create one connecting with one of the biggest VCs in Palestine. And our vision was to work with early-stage startups, incubate them until they are ready for acceleration and funding. And one of the biggest questions we kept coming back to while building this foundation is, what do you do with a highly educated population? And while we were trying to answer this very general question, we constantly had in mind, in addition to this global pandemic, the political situation and the economic constraints in Palestine make it a very hard scene and very tough for startups to flourish. But for me, I see it that despite the struggle and despite these challenges, this generation of Palestinian youth, the future generation, shows really great will and enthusiasm and is determined to push the economy forward in order to improve the quality of life, of their daily life. So it becomes personal at this point and it changes the generation and it changes the energy of these entrepreneurs. I see that they are very skilled. This gives me great optimism and I see a huge opportunity to advance. Thank you. Thank you, Dana. And so kind of shifting gears to what, and by the way, I would love for you to be in the bracket with Dana. I feel like I'm also the future. Dana, if you would have... Ha, ha, ha, ha. Please accept me there. So just on the, because, Yossi, you mentioned radical inclusion. You mentioned how important it is that we really think about also the people that are not yet part of the digital economy, if you will, are not directly benefiting from the high-tech growth that we see. So if I could start with you, Dana, on that, how do you see it in Palestine? That, how do, let's say, traditional businesses and other sectors of society, do you have any ideas or what are you doing to make sure that they're not left behind and that we're not feeding this divide between the digital haves and the digital have-nots to use Yossi's phrase? Yeah, absolutely. I think Yossi mentioned a very good point about inclusion and I think when we talk about insights for innovation and execution, we really have to understand the local market and the needs for the application. So when we talk about the great reset, we talk about jobs of tomorrow that are very technologically enabled indeed. However, they're also very human-centered. And so when I talk about the Palestinian ecosystem, I think of a very traditional one, one where there's a lot of heritage. And I think in order to apply the great reset ideology, we have to find a balance in order to avoid the risk of cutting a great deal of jobs and traditional crafts. So for me, it's all about balancing automation with craftsmanship, a harmonization where one isn't sacrificed for the other. And as a designer, I will ask this question of how much we use technology to enhance and empower these businesses rather than replace them. Yet on the other hand, on the other extreme, it is also important to encourage Palestinian entrepreneurs towards the creation of new jobs using technology and innovation in response to the gaps in the market and the tackle, the issue of unemployment I touched upon previously. Because I think many of the IT grads who do not find jobs in Palestine tend to find jobs in the Gulf where the competition is high or get employed in outsourcing jobs in multinational companies. But I still see it as an advantage point because these candidates come back with very high skills and transfer these skills into a better and stronger ecosystem in Palestine. Therefore, they then become the pioneers of change. No, thank you so much. Very nicely put. And just very quickly, if I could follow up, I said that you're also the founder or the co-founder, founder, sorry, a founding curator of the East Jerusalem hub. So can you tell us a little more about what that global shapers hub is doing in Palestinian society? Just to continue on that. And then I'd like to go to you, Yossi, on the same question of inclusion and what you're doing with your activities there. So, Dana, if you can just address that. Absolutely. So, you know, I said I'm a strong believer in the power of youth and I definitely think that it is time for a young leadership to take over. So when we launched the hub, we decided with WEF that we will launch East and West Jerusalem hubs. And now there are four hubs in Palestine. And for me, that's a way for us as Palestinians to empower the ecosystem and force ourselves in the national agenda. So that's the first step for us. And I think one of the initiatives that we try to do is collaborate with the four hubs in Palestine, you know, and try to be connected also with the hubs around the world so that we can network more and have more collaboration. One of the most outstanding initiatives that we did as a collaboration with the four hubs is a conference that we managed to create in 21 days and it was a dream for many. But this conference, you know, we had thousands of people coming. It was a great networking opportunity and there were many startups and founders that talked about this experience. But we also had change makers, leaders and politicians in this conference. And this was a chance for us to bring, you know, business and politics in order to make some sort of change in Palestine and the ideologies. Another area that we try to tap into other than business and politics is mentorship and education. Because I believe that when we collaborate as youth and we make all these initiatives together, you know, we start preparing the next generation through education and we can then implement these ideologies in school rather than just focusing on supporting adult entrepreneurs. And, you know, I see a huge potential for that. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you, Dana. So Yossi, shifting to you and on what you're doing, particularly with the, quote unquote, the schools because I have visited and I think it's a tremendous project. Could you please talk about that a little in a little more detail? It's around the radical inclusion idea but this is a practical demonstration of it. Okay, before that, I just would like to add one word to support what Dana said. I live maybe half an hour from Palestine to go from my home to the nearest Palestinian point is less than half an hour. And because of my interest, I'm quite aware of what's going on in the high-tech in Palestine and also many American, in Israel, we have many American and European companies which are located in Israel. And in recent years, they began to contract Palestinian youngster to work for them. So you have companies like Intel and NVIDIA and Microsoft and Nokia and then Cisco, the best of the best employing young Palestinians and the people, the executive of these companies don't stop to brag about both the quality and the commitment of the young people. And this is probably one of the best kept secrets of the region. I see we have quite a nice turnout in this meeting. So I call all the people who see the meeting, if you are looking for good fresh source of coders, look into Palestine, you will be surprised, but I know that there are over a hundred international companies and regional companies which are contracting there. So this was just a little testimonial to support Dana. Regarding the inclusion, the problem in society, this is a long topic, but I will try to summarize it. In one minute. In one minute. The problem is that people have different narratives to the same set of facts. People have different narratives and they develop the narratives while they suck their mother milk. So you live home after 18 years of being bombarded directly and indirectly with the narrative. And everyone is writing his narrative from his point of view. What, and then the examples are endless and you can argue until you are blue in the face whose narrative is correct and you never have a chance to convince what you should do regarding this issue of narratives. You have to agree with the other party that you cannot agree on the narratives, but you have to respect the right of the other party to have his own narrative. You don't have to accept it. You have to accept the fact that he has the right to have his own narrative like you have the right to have your own narrative. What you should have, you should number one have empathy and number two, you should focus on how to develop the shared future. If you take this approach, you can arrive into understanding. It's not easy to arrive into understanding. Now regarding the schools in Israel the society is fragmented to number what we call tribes. You have the secular Jews, you have the ultra orthodox Jews, you have the secular Arabs, you have the religious Arabs, you have the Bedouins, you have Ethiopians, you have Muslims, you have Christians, you have any, we are like a catalog of everything. And different people who come from different background have different chance to succeed in life. The main problem is not of the bright kids, the main problem is for kids who are coming from challenging social economic background. And I spent together with some of my friends in the, in the high tech and some international foundation supporting schools which serve the kid. We are not focusing on the brightest kid. We are not necessarily focusing not that we don't like them, but we think that the kid who is accomplished less still have a chance to do a lot of great things according to his capacity. And we are trying to empower them and we get amazing results. You know, we go to a school and in five years kids are getting average kids getting the top results in matriculation exams. When we have two hours, I can give you all the details, but I must say that as all of the people who are involved in this kind of thing, so we are not doing anybody a favor other than ourselves. It really give you a lot of good feeling about all the sins you've done in the past. So this is a way maybe to be redeemed a little bit. No, Yossi, thanks so much. I can attest to how great these schools are. I visited with you in Rogozin and also in Lot. And it's just amazing what you're doing there. We have about, if they allow me to go a little over, maybe three, four minutes. And I'd like to stay with you, Yossi. Obviously I touched upon it at the beginning. We also have the political frame. So just to be upfront that the World Economic Forum has been always a big supporter of the two-state solution and we have been working always hard to make sure our platform is provided to a forward-looking dialogue on that issue. So you are part, Yossi, of a community we've had since 2012. No, since 94, if you don't mind. And before 94, of course. So can you tell us a little more on that? Why do you think, why are you engaged in this dialogue between the Israelis and the Palestinians? First of all, this is a great opportunity for me to thank the forum for an amazing job it has done since 94, which very few people are aware of it. But since 1994, the forum was very active in creating a meeting ground between Israeli and Middle East Iran people, business people, leaders, academia, et cetera, et cetera. From the Israeli side, the late president, Paris usually spirited this effort. I was lucky enough to be involved in it. And actually the first meeting between Israeli business people and Arab business people, open one, was that it took place in Morocco in the MENA meeting that the forum, as for the forum, never saved any effort to create these opportunities, this ability to meet in places like Cairo, Jordan, and even now everybody talk about the Gulf, but people don't remember that in 97, I think, the forum got a big delegation of Israelis and regional Arab people to Qatar and we had our first meeting in the Gulf. This is the time to say really thank you and this bring me to my, maybe my conclusion, sentence, you know, this meeting is about idea. So the one idea which I would like to suggest, I saw firsthand the great effect of people meeting other people and talking. You know, when you talk, the suspicion goes away. You develop understanding, you develop compassion, you develop empathy, you develop trust. It's very important. Today, according Wikipedia, there are 53 armed conflicts around the world and probably a few hundreds, non-armed conflict. I think that this model that the forum employed under the leadership of Klaus and with the very active participation of Burjah and yourself, Mirek, is a very good proof of concept and I would like to suggest to the forum to do it in all these 53 conflict to get business people from the two sides of the fault line to talk. We know as a fact that both in South Africa and in Ireland, the business community played a very important role in solving the conflict. The business community cannot sign a peace agreement but they can give tailwind and feeling of security to the leaders. So my one idea for that meeting and for this wonderful conference is let's take this model that we employed in the Middle East and use it in other places. It take time, you have to be stubborn, you don't have to, you have not to leave it but I think that the ice was broken to a great part on the people to people level by the forum and this model should be employed in other fault lines as well. No, thank you Yossi, I'll make sure to also transmit it to Klaus Schwab and Borgia Brande and thank you for your commitment. I know Klaus Schwab also is very proud of our role in South Africa at the time and this is a great idea and I thank you for articulating it like that for us. Speaking of ideas, Dana I'd like to you to wrap us up with your idea. What would you like to note as one idea that you would like to give as a farewell to the participants here for this session? Yeah, I think I'm just gonna build on Yossi's open call to solve a challenge but mine is a bit more brief I'd say. I look at a challenge as a design challenge and this is an open call for other global leaders to reflect, reimagine and reset their systems. So I'm gonna give you a set of steps and if you follow it, you can definitely be creative on how to involve it in your system and solve a challenge. So the first step would be to identify a challenge whether it was COVID or climate change or anything because insights and ideas fuel innovation and then practice observing and interpreting and ask yourself what do people need on a national and global level and practice the what, why, how and of observation of experts. And then Yossi you mentioned empathy multiple times and I insist on this one. I think you really have to use empathy, get beyond your assumptions, put yourself in the shoes of the people you're designing for or leading and last for least interview, ask the right questions, set the stage and then you can share compelling and quality insights that will inspire others to make a change and innovate. And I think these are the main steps for creating solutions. And before I end, I just wanna share one quote from Zahi Khuri, which you both know. He's a Palestinian businessman and an active member of the World Economic Forum. He always says that diamonds are created under tremendous pressure and Palestine has mines full of diamonds. So I think all these global challenges should not be a limitation to anyone but rather flourish under these challenges and solve and innovate. Thank you. Thank you so much. I love that can do hopeful message as a farewell from this session. Thank you so much to all of you on Topling. This was an insight and idea with Yossi Vardy and Dana Al-Alami.