Bath’s burgeoning business links with Bethlehem will be strengthened next month when a trade delegation from the biblical birthplace of Jesus visits the city to explore import and export opportunities.
The visit is being arranged by Business West and Bethlehem-Bath Links, the Bath-based charity that is creating cultural, business, educational and sporting links between the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Bath and Bethlehem. 
It takes place on March 4 and 5, which will enable the Bethlehem delegation to attend the Bath Business Expo as well as attend a series of meetings with West Country firms interested in developing business connections.
Bethlehem-Bath Links has already introduced a Bath water filter and pipe repair company to the Bethlehem Water Authority to help reduce its 40% water loss, and has just launched a Young Palestinian Entrepreneur competition, sponsored by Wataniya Mobile, the main Palestinian telecoms company.
The shortlisted candidates made their presentations to the judging panel in Ramallah, Palestine, earlier this week and the winner was 24-year-old graphic designer Maysaa Alshear from Jenin, who recently started a greetings card company.
Her bright and humorous designs, which often incorporate Palestinian heritage, have proved more popular than expected, with orders from Egypt and further afield. Maysaa wins an all-expenses paid trip to Bath in March and has been offered one to one entrepreneurship business advice from the University of Bath's Innovation Centre with further online support once she is back in Palestine.
These business tie-ups build on the charity’s first project, which involved bringing 60 Bethlehem students to Bath for the Bethlehem-Bath Youth Sports Festival in October 2013. The visiting teenagers were hosted by Bath families and played sport with 12 schools across the Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) area.
More recently the charity provided life-saving medical equipment for a two-year-old Bethlehem girl and organised Bath Christmas Market stalls for the Holy Land Handicraft Cooperative.
Bethlehem-Bath Links founder, retired Bath businessman Peter Downey, was in Palestine this week to interview the short-listed young entrepreneurs and to meet a number of key contacts in the region, including the British Ambassador to Jordan, the director of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce and company directors across the region who are interested in supporting the charity's work to develop further links between the two cities and to increase trade and economic self-reliance in the Bethlehem area.
Bethlehem-Bath Links will have a display stand at the Bath Business Expo on March 4 to promote Bethlehem companies’ products and services while Business West is organising a round table seminar for the trade mission at its headquarters in Leigh Court near Bristol on March 5.
Bethlehem companies taking part in the mission include Jala Food, which would like to import UK soft drinks, confectionary and dairy products to Palestine; Jala Care, which is looking to import household cleaning products, and Zerco Construction, which is interested in importing tower cranes.
Bethlehem products which could be imported to the UK include Jala Food’s frozen avocado halves and paste, which may interest hotels and restaurants; Iyad Jewellery’s designer aluminium jewellery, and Raed Cosmetics’ natural health and beauty products.
Golden Gate Travel would like to meet UK travel agents and incentive travel companies interested in providing Holy Land tours to Jordan and Palestine, and The Holy Land Handicraft Cooperative is looking for a UK agent for its hand-crafted olive wood bowls, jewellery and religious carvings, which are sold each year at the Bath Christmas Market.
For more information, or to arrange a meeting with members of the delegation (who all speak excellent English), please email megan@bethlehem-bath.com or Sarah Hildersley at Business West at sarah.hildersley@businesswest.co.uk.
Bethlehem-Bath Links is also seeking sponsors for the Palestinian delegation visit. Sponsors will have their branding on the Bethlehem-Bath Links stand at the Bath Business Expo and the Business West seminar.
It is also looking for Bath accommodation providers to provide ‘room at the inn' for the Bethlehem delegation. Any business that can help should contact Megan on 01225 340697 or megan@bethlehem-bath.com.
Bethlehem-Bath Links also urgently needs core funding to continue its many linking projects which include a Bath schools return tour to Bethlehem in October; a ‘Goal for Peace football tour this summer; linking Bath Ales and Taybeh Beer, the first microbrewery in the Middle East, who are planning to produce a joint Peace Beer, and a screening of the film Open Bethlehem with Q&As with the director Leila Sansour at Chapel Arts on March 4. To make a donation visit www.justgiving.com/b-bl or for further information go to the charity’s website at www.bethlehem-bath.com
