Working side by sideLipski Plastic - Barkan Industrial AreaCranking, wheezing and rocking machines are lined up row upon row. Managers straining to talk above the noise that is now the background of some 65 Palestinian and 35 Israeli workers at Lipski, a plastics factory located in Barkan’s industrial area.“We are one factory, one plate, all of us,” Yehuda Cohen, CEO of Lipski Plastics, said. “If the company succeeds, all of us [will be] getting more. If the company does not succeed, some of us go home, and the others are getting less. This is the most important benefit that we can have here.”The company exports rattan bins and brushes as well as plastic plumbing pipes.“In 1988 this industrial area was built … because the government wanted to support this area. I came here 11 years ago and I found this building.”For Cohen, being in this industrial area created a way to gain willing employees.“After I came here, I found that if you give a Palestinian employee a fair salary, conditions and respect, you get wonderful people. It’s a win-win situation: I need workers and the workers need work.”Rasheed Morrar is a Palestinian worker who is now a manager for Lipski’s assembly department.“What you have to understand, to appreciate, are the other people – even [if they have] another language, even another state... If you work with them, you will appreciate them,” Morrar said.