In a rare show of cooperation, a team of Israeli and Palestinian software developers came together Tuesday in the shadow of Israel’s West Bank separation barrier to launch a product they hope will revolutionize personal computing and perhaps improve communication between the two conflicted sides.
Israeli entrepreneur Zvi Schreiber partnered with Palestinian engineers to launch G.ho.st Virtual Computer, a Web-based operating system that recreates the attributes of a personal computer’s desktop from any computer with an Internet connection.
“Our idea is simply to use the Internet to give people a computing environment that is not just stored on a physical device, but is available on a Web page or any mobile device and gives you everything you need: your desktop, your files, your programs,” G.ho.st CEO Schreiber said at the launch, in the West Bank town of Beit Jalla, close to Jerusalem’s southern edge.
The company started more than three years ago after Schreiber sold his second high tech startup. He had never worked with Palestinians and knew very little about the fledgling software industry in the West Bank.
“I wanted to combine my technological interests with my social interests. I always wanted to do something to help resolve the complete mess that we’ve all made of this part of the world,” he said.
The company’s name refers not only to the virtual computer’s ability to float through the boundaries of a physical computer, but also to the G.ho.st team’s cross-border collaboration.
The Palestinian staff of nearly 30 workers confers with its Israeli counterparts mostly by video conference or at meetings in a roadside coffee shop in the desert between Jericho and Jerusalem. Many of the engineers living in the West Bank aren’t able to get the permits needed to get into Israel, while Israelis are barred from most Palestinian areas in the West Bank due…