Israel, Palestine Unite Over Piracy

TEL AVIV, Israel‹In a rare instance of Israeli/Palestinian cooperation, record pirates from both sides of the fence are threatening the very viability of the Israeli music industry.
According to the Israeli Assn. of Music Composers and Publishers (ACUM), the market for pirated discs in Israel stands at $47 million in 1998. This year, the police seized 168,568 pirated discs and 110,274 illegal cassettes, a huge jump from the year before, when 69,663 discs and 31,270 cassettes were confiscated.
The result has been dozens of composers applying for funds from the ACUM welfare fund this year and 19 files opened by the State Collection Agency against music composers and retailers who have fallen into deep debt in the past six months.
The piracy industry has become too sophisticated for the police to crack, but indications are that as many as half the illegal discs and tapes are manufactured in the Palestinian Authority and transferred to Israeli underworld gangs, which divide the hawking of the products into territories. The individual sellers are uninformed of the sales hierarchy, and thus, the producers are protected.
The piracy figures have become so high that the U.S. Commerce Department has placed Israel on the Priority Watch List, while the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is pressuring the European Union to crack down on the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli Minister for Internal Security Avigdor Kahalani has ordered the police to form a special unit to put an end to piracy, but the Palestinian Authority has not yet issued a similar order to its police force.
Both sets of authorities may, though, come under pressure from the EU.
Stefan Krawczyk, senior adviser of international trade at IFPI's Brussels offices, says the EU is sympathetic to the music industry's concerns and has asked IFPI to provide further evidence of the extent and the nature of the illicit trade.
Krawczyk notes that the EU has trade agreements with both Israel and Palestine. One provision of these deals is an undertaking from the EU to protect the rights of Israeli and Palestinian citizens; the Middle Eastern states undertake to give the same protection to EU rights holders.
EU officials met with the Israelis in July to discuss these trade agreements in general, but have yet to meet with Palestinian representatives. Krawczyk comments, "It is possible that piracy could be the first item on the first agenda at the first meeting with the Palestinian representatives."
Noting that the bulk of the people affected by piracy in Israel and Palestine are either European or U.S. citizens, Krawczyk says American trade authorities are also closely monitoring the situation.
Krawczyk notes that the main problem stems from one plant on the West Bank that, IFPI believes, is producing approximately 15,000 pirated discs a day. He says the bulk of the repertoire is current international hits and classic catalog albums from such acts as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The discs are moved between Palestinian and Israeli jurisdiction, Krawczyk says, under the cover of the large number of workers who cross the border each day.