Zahi Khouri

Biography

Zahi W. Khouri was born in 1938 into a Palestinian Christian family in Jaffa, then in Mandatory Palestine. His family fled the city during the 1948 war, becoming refugees in Lebanon, an experience of dispossession that defined his identity and later motivated his decision to invest in the Palestinian homeland. Khouri earned an engineering degree from the Stuttgart Institute of Technology and an MBA from INSEAD in France. In 1967 he moved to the United States, settling in Virginia, and built a successful international business career over the following decades, including senior roles managing major multinational consumer and beverage operations across the Gulf and beyond. Following the 1993 Oslo Accords, Khouri made the consequential decision to return to Palestine and reinvest his expertise and capital in building a private-sector economy. He was a co-founder of the Palestine Development and Investment Company (PADICO), the largest Palestinian investment holding company, helping lay the institutional foundations of the emerging Palestinian economy. His signature achievement was founding the Palestinian National Beverage Company, which secured the official Coca-Cola franchise for the West Bank and Gaza and built bottling plants employing thousands of Palestinians, including a notable facility in Gaza. He also served as CEO of Jawwal, the first Palestinian mobile telecommunications operator, helping bring modern connectivity to Palestinian society. A prominent advocate for Palestinian economic development and rights, Khouri has been recognized internationally, including by the Business for Peace Foundation. He represents the contemporary diaspora entrepreneur who chose to return, embodying the conviction that building functioning businesses and jobs is itself a form of national construction and an assertion of Palestinian dignity under difficult conditions.

Why This Person Matters

He returned from the diaspora to help build Palestine's private-sector economy, founding the Coca-Cola franchise and bottling operations and helping create PADICO and Jawwal.

Historical Context

Zahi Khouri was a child in Jaffa, the thriving Palestinian port city, when the 1948 war drove his Christian family into Lebanese exile, an uprooting that defined his identity. He spent the long decades of dispossession building an international business career in Europe, the Gulf, and the United States, far from a homeland he could not return to. The 1993 Oslo Accords reopened that door, and Khouri made the deliberate choice to come back and invest in a Palestinian economy being built almost from scratch under the new Palestinian Authority. His trajectory mirrors that of the returning diaspora Palestinian who saw the post-Oslo moment as a once-in-a-generation chance to root capital and expertise in the homeland.

Historical Context

1. 1938 — Born in Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine
2. 1948 — The Nakba – Palestinian catastrophe and mass displacement
3. 1967 — Six-Day War and occupation of West Bank and Gaza

Legacy & Influence

Khouri co-founded PADICO, the largest Palestinian investment holding company, and helped lay the institutional foundations of the emerging Palestinian private sector. His signature achievement, the Palestinian National Beverage Company, secured the Coca-Cola franchise for the West Bank and Gaza and built bottling plants, including one in Gaza, employing thousands. As CEO of Jawwal, the first Palestinian mobile operator, he helped connect Palestinian society to modern communications. Internationally recognized, including by the Business for Peace Foundation, he endures as the model of the returning diaspora entrepreneur who treated building functioning businesses and jobs as an act of national construction and an assertion of Palestinian dignity under occupation.

Topics & Themes

• British Mandate

References & Sources

1. Zahi Khouri — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahi_Khouri
2. Honouree Profile: Zahi Khouri — https://www.businessforpeace.org/honouree-profile-zahi-khouri/
3. Zahi Khouri — https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1655089