?Damage at Bisan Air-Conditioning Factory in Tulkarm caused following an Israeli army raid. (WAFA Images) 

TULKARM- February 12, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli soldiers raided early Sunday, vandalized and force stoppage of work at Palestine’s main air-conditioning factory, according to the owners, in a step seen by experts as an attempt to prevent competition to Israeli companies.

Mohammad Johar, CEO and member of the board of Bisan Air-conditioning Factory in Tulkarm in the north of the West Bank, told WAFA that Israeli soldiers raided the plant located on the outskirts of the city at around 4:30 am on Sunday morning.

“I received a phone call from our security guards at the factory telling me that soldiers have raided the factory and searched it thoroughly and when they got the computers room, which was closed, they blew up the door, broke into it and seized all the computers and equipment, which are considered the brain for the factory and the assembly line,” he said.

Losses incurred as a result of this act have not been estimated yet, but they are expected to be high, he added.

Bisan factory, which was completed only last year at a cost of around $5 million, is considered the fourth largest air conditioning factory in the Middle East.

The factory has plans to expand its capital by another $5 million this year while working capital was estimated to reach around $36 million annually over the next five years.

The factory started with 20 engineers and technicians but this number increased to 45 by the end of 2017 and is expected to reach 250 technicians and administrators by the fifth year of production.

“Bisan is not only the first factory in Palestine for air conditioners but also the first in using advanced technology in order to have a product capable of competing in world markets,” said Johar in a previous interview about the factory. Its teams got training in Egypt, which has the largest factory in this field in the Middle East, and in China.

The Israeli army raid on the factory was “an unjustified systematic vandalism and destruction, not only for the factory but also for the Palestinian economy because they halted the work of the factory, which is going to affect the lives of its 45 employees and their families,” said Johar.

He said that there was no prior warning from the Israeli army that they were going to raid the factory, which he said its launch was not easy and faced many challenges. He said the raid added another challenge.

Tulkarm Governor Issam Abu Baker condemned the Israeli army raid on the factory saying it was an “unjustified crime against Palestinian institutions and companies in order to create economic instability under baseless pretexts that aim to undermine our capacity.”

Kamal Ghanem, a director at the Ministry of National Economy, described the raid as “a crime against a pioneering factory not only at the national level, but also at the Arab and international levels.”

He said the factory competes against Israeli companies at markets abroad and at home, adding that this act was clearly aimed at halting work at the factory, which will come at high cost for the factory and the Palestinian economy.

C.K./M.K.