The Portland Trust is a private 'not-for-profit' UK foundation whose purpose is to the promotion of economic development as a way of engendering peace and stability between Palestinians and Israel.

Foundation

The Trust was founded in 2003 in London by Ronald Cohen

Ronald Cohen

Sir Ronald Cohen is an Egyptian-born British businessman and political figure, known as "the father of British venture capital" and "the father of social investment".-Early life:...

, Harry Solomon

Harry Solomon (businessman)

Sir Harry Solomon is the founder of Hillsdown Holdings, one of the United Kingdom's largest food businesses.-Career:Educated at St Albans School in Hertfordshire, Harry Solomon qualified as a solicitor in 1960 and went on to practise law...

, Martin Gilbert

Martin Gilbert

Sir Martin John Gilbert, CBE, PC is a British historian and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. He is the author of over eighty books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history...

 (a historian) and David Freud, (a former UBS banker). David Freud is also the Trust's chief executive.

Aims and focus

Its focus is on initiatives to help develop the private sector particularly in the Palestinian Territories where it hopes to identify economic 'bottle-necks' and then use its expertise to relieve them. These economics bottlenecks often involve security related issues. When a possible solution has been identified the Trust seeks support and commitment from a wide range of interested parties. Special efforts being made to identify appropriate sponsors and mobilize the funds needed.

Three strands of development have been identified:

1. financial infrastructure
2. physical infrastructure
3. facilitation of trade

Publications

• A monthly bulletin on the Palestinian Economy
• Occasional papers documenting strategic analysis of topical issues

Partners

The Trust works on a range of initiatives with the following partners

• Israeli Government
• Palestinian Authority
• British Government,
• EU
• The Quartet
• USAID
• The World Bank
• Palestinian Investment Fund
• Palestinian Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS)
• Palestinian Mortgage & Housing Corporation
• OPIC
• PlaNet Finance
• Clinton Global Initiative
• Koret Israel Economic Development Funds
• GuarantCo
• RAND
• GTZ
• CHF
• Aspen Institute
• Yad Hanadiv and
• the Peres Center for Peace

Offices

The Trust has offices in the UK (London), Israel (Tel Aviv: Eival Gilady

Eival Gilady

Brigadier General Eival Gilady is the CEO of the Portland Trust in Israel, a non-profit British foundation, established to foster peace and stability in the Middle East through the use of bespoke economic tools and mobilization of international resources.Gilady is the Chairman of the Western...

 is the Managing Director) and Palestine (Ramallah: directed by Samir Hulileh

Samir Hulileh

Samir Hulileh , born in Kuwait in 1957, is the Chief Executive Officer of Palestine Development and Investment Ltd. Palestine...

).

Criticism

The Telegraph raised concerns about this Charity's high salaries ("Staff at the Portland Trust are also among the best-paid charity workers in Britain, each employee receiving, on average, a six-figure salary"), "lack of transparency" in its accounts and "scant details" of what the charity had actually done. It also noted links between its founders and the UK Labour Party.

Sources

• Memorandum submitted by the Portland Trust to the International Development Select Committees House of Commons UK
• The Portland Trust homepage