RAMALLAH - The streets here were tumultuous on the last Tuesday of November, the day the Annapolis conference opened. The Palestinians who didn't watch the proceedings on television streamed onto the streets, and a small demonstration in Manara Square by opponents of the summit escalated into a violent clash with the Palestinian police, who used truncheons and teargas to disperse the crowd. Vans packed with reinforcements in the form of armed security forces arrived to help scatter the crowd of people, some of whom had already heard about the incident in Hebron in which a demonstrator was shot dead by Palestinian forces.

In the luxurious offices of Sky, the largest advertising and PR agency in the Palestinian Authority (PA), few of the employees took an interest in the developments in the far-off conference or in the events unfolding in the nearby square. The firm's manager, Tariq Abbas, emphasizes that he does everything he can to avoid dealing directly with politics. His secretary is also surprised to hear about the demonstration and says she has no interest in it. Nevertheless, Abbas believes that his efforts to sell Palestinians products of local and international manufacture, instead of Israeli goods, are an integral element of the struggle against the occupation. He cannot, however, get too far away from politics. Not only does the reality of the occupation constantly affect the work of his office, which was used as an Israeli outpost during the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) Operation Defensive Shield, in the spring of 2002: Abbas also encounters the world of politics at every family gathering, since he is the son of PA President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).

"I am trying to change the trend in the Middle East, including Israel," the younger Abbas explains to Haaretz. "Relatives of politicians have to engage in politics, too. We have enough politicians: Everyone here is a politician, and every child on the street suffers from the occupation. But in a society those who deal with civil matters, which are also of political importance, carry weight. If once the majority of the Palestinians was exposed mainly to Israeli products, now they are discovering that there are also other options, that there are Palestinian and internationally made products - and that certainly assists the struggle."

Abbas' declared policy is not to cooperate with Israelis. Recently, though, he received a request from OneVoice - a New York-based organization that advocates conflict resolution - to help organize a "Concert for Peace" in Jericho featuring rock star Bryan Adams, the Iraqi musician Ilham al-Madfai and other artists, both Arabs and Israelis. Abbas did not reject the request out of hand, but according to media reports, the concert never took place in part due to opposition from the office of his father.

The younger Abbas says that only preliminary contacts were made with him and that in any event he was skeptical about the idea. "I don't know how realistic they were," he says. "They wanted to stage a mega-event, but I don't know whether it was really viable - the scale of it, the celebrities they wanted to bring. It did not get beyond talk. I am not sure how tuned in to reality they were."

His own dream is to bring the Egyptian singer Amr Diab to perform in Ramallah. "He can appeal to a young generation like me and to younger people," Abbas says. "But my taste is different. I would be very happy to bring Sting, but I am not sure there are enough fans here who appreciate the quality of his music. Generally, I prefer performers from the 1980s - Duran Duran, the Scorpions." His taste in film runs to Tom Hanks, though action films are what he likes best. "You get addicted to action because of what goes on here every day," he adds.

'Arafat grabbed me'

Tariq Abbas, 41, is married to a lawyer and has three children. Many of his childhood memories are intertwined with the history of the Palestinian struggle. "Throughout our childhood we were in danger of being assassinated by the Israelis," he says. "You see the guards around the house and around your father, and you understand - even if no one talked to us about it - that something is happening there, that one night you could find Israeli commandos in your room. When I was in Syria, two schemes by the Israelis to get at my father were uncovered: one to abduct him, the other to assassinate him."

Did you take an interest in the events in your home? Was there a lot of activity?

Abbas: "First of all, there was no terrorism from my house, if that is what you are getting at. We [children] were not involved in the activity that went on in the house; we were not allowed to be part of things like that. To this day, our father does not allow us to sit around him when he is busy with work."

Did you know Yasser Arafat well?

"He knew me and joked with me. Sometimes he would grab me by the neck - as a joke, but with force - and make me sit down next to him. For a young person, for a boy, that is a bit too much."

Do you talk about politics with your father? Will you discuss the results of the Annapolis conference with him?

"Not really. I know that my task is not to increase the level of politics in his life. I talk to him mostly about my children, about what they are doing."

Do you go to him for advice?

"I like to hear his opinion. He is not familiar with the details, but if I make a significant decision, I want to hear what he thinks."

Do people try to influence your father through you?

"I think they know it's pointless, because I only talk to my father about social matters."

Did Israeli intelligence never try to recruit you to obtain information about the president?

Abbas laughs heartily: "There is no chance of that. I think Israeli intelligence also knows that I am not for hire."

In the elections for the Palestinian parliament, Abbas' agency worked in the service of the former finance minister in the Palestinian government, Dr. Salam Fayyad, the Western-educated founder of the Third Way party, who is highly regarded by both Israel and the United States. The party won only two seats (2.4 percent of the vote), which were taken by Fayyad and the veteran politician Hanan Ashrawi. Still, Fayyad exercised considerable influence in Palestinian politics and Mahmoud Abbas appointed him to head the emergency government after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip.

Despite Fayyad's ideological affinity with the Fatah movement, which Mahmoud Abbas helped co-found, Fayyad ran against Fatah in the elections in which Tariq Abbas worked for him. "I did not vote for Fayyad, as he well knows," Tariq Abbas says. "I did not lie to him. In elections, everyone works for someone. It wasn't especially difficult for me, because 99 percent of his agenda is the same as the Fatah agenda, which is the right agenda. Naturally, I would not have worked for Hamas."

Did you ask your father for his opinion?

"I don't remember asking him, but I don't see a big problem here. Fayyad is an independent, and in any event it's good for Fatah to have an independent candidate who is promoting the same agenda."

The result wasn't terrific - just two seats. Was he satisfied?

"He paid the money. It wasn't bad, considering the political situation here, with people preferring to stick to known parties."

Did you want him to win?

"Of course not. I am a Fatah person. If I weren't in Fatah, I might have given it some thought."

Ramallah is not Tunis

Before moving to Ramallah, in 1996, Tariq Abbas experienced the stations of the Palestinian liberation movement's journey in exile. He was born in Qatar and lived there until the age of three, when the family moved to Jordan, but in the wake of the events of September 1970 ("Black September," in Palestinian parlance) - when the Palestinian organizations in Jordan clashed with forces loyal to King Hussein - the Jordanians expelled the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). His father moved to Lebanon together with the other PLO chiefs, while Tariq was sent to Syria, where he lived and attended school for 11 years. Following another year in Qatar, he studied management for a year in Washington and another year in Canada. In 1989, he joined his family in Tunis (where PLO leaders relocated after the expulsion from Lebanon) and three years later moved to Abu Dhabi, where he lived until 1996.

"Tunis was the best place I have lived in," he recalls. "The people there were very pleasant and supportive. We went out a lot and enjoyed the society. It was a place where you could enjoy life. When I came here for the first time, it was a strange feeling: I never thought that I would have the opportunity to live in a place where I am not a stranger. My friends in Syria always laughed at me - they said I would live next to a gas station in Ramallah."

And what was your impression of the city?

"It is a very small city, but with a life of its own. With all the difficulties, people live their lives. There is a movie theater, there are cafes that I like. I live in this city and am in love with it, but here and there I feel the absence of a restaurant."

And as compared with Tunis?

"I did not expect it to be Tunis - I knew that in advance, but I like to spend most of my time here and I don't lack for things to do. I also like Jericho very much."

Have you visited Safed, where your father was born?

"Yes, but the city has changed a great deal from the one I heard about in my father's stories. Today I live in Ramallah and it is my city."

Abbas established his company in 1996 together with a group of entrepreneurs, in partnership with the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram and private investors. Now owned by APIC, an Arab-Palestinian investment firm, the firm does the advertising for many of the large international corporations that market their products in the PA, such as Fuji, the photographic film company, and Wrigley's, the chewing gum manufacturer. The main media of advertising are billboards, newspaper ads and radio commercials; television commercials are less frequent.

"At first we thought of ideas for small budgets," Abbas says. "A great effort was needed to persuade Palestinian companies to use advertising services, but in the end they came back to us with double the budgets, because they saw the results. At a later stage, international companies that wanted to market their products for Palestinian market also joined."

The founding of the firm created an advertising world in the territories where previously there was none. Abbas' firm is still the largest, but there are now also four other big companies and many small ones.

"The competition here is particularly tough," Abbas says. "Because of the economic situation, the market revolves around price. You are not evaluated according to the quality of the product or the service you give, but according to the cheap price you are capable of offering."

Have you been criticized - by Hamas, say - for promoting the economic influence of the West in the territories?

"I am sure that they do not like some of what I do, but you can't please everyone. In Jerusalem, too, the female models are fully clothed in the street [advertising] signs. I am sure that not everyone likes this. We have democracy and freedom of expression, and if I want to promote a European or American product, I do not force anyone to buy. Besides, Hamas is dying to talk to the Americans; if America were to agree to meet with them, they would be delighted."

What about the element of illusion in advertising? Do you not know that it is problematic to cultivate illusions in a situation of occupation and political confrontation?

"Why? If a product will improve my life, that is good enough. If I want to drink mineral water and I feel that will improve my life, that is good. It will help me overcome the occupation, from which we suffer every day."

Not everyone suffers to the same degree. Do you feel guilty for living here in relative comfort?

"People from every income level live in Ramallah, all kinds of people live here - it's not that the distress is so far away, and some of our products are aimed at people with lower incomes. Everyone buys milk and almost everyone uses a cellular phone. Ramallah is too small a city for me not to know people from every social level. When it was still possible, I also visited Gaza. I can't be happy at the fact that there is no electricity in Gaza, but I will not shut off the lights in my home in order to feel what that is like. I am trying to work to improve the living conditions; if I live and enjoy electricity, that helps everyone. If I say that I am devastated, then we will all be devastated."

Occupied office

Abbas feels the Israeli occupation sharply. His family lineage and his status in Ramallah do not shorten his waiting time at the Qalandiyah checkpoint, he says. "There are no privileges there, everyone is humiliated equally." At the beginning of the intifada his company was on the verge of collapse: "We were able to work here and there, even during the curfew periods, when people could not get to the office. Our good fortune was that many of our clients are big companies that do not leave the market completely - as almost all the small and medium-sized companies did - but only make minor cuts."

The younger Abbas' connections were of no avail during Operation Defensive Shield: The IDF took over Sky's offices. "The army was in our offices for 23 days," Abbas recalls. "They turned the place, including my office, into a military camp where the soldiers relieved themselves. Clients told us that when they called the office, the army answered. During that period, all the employees were under siege in their homes and barely went out to get bread and vegetables."

It took a long time to get the office back on its feet, Abbas relates. "They took down the ceiling in my room and removed all the hard disks from the computers, with all the information on them. They even smashed car windows and let the air out of the tires. That destroyed me. One soldier left us a note that he wrote in poor English: 'Sons of bitches, terrorists.' They also scrawled things on product samples. There was apparently a sniper in one of the rooms, because he left behind a document in Hebrew about sniper training. After something like that you feel depressed: Everything you did is wrecked before your very eyes."

Did you break off contacts with Israelis after that?

"I know many people from Israeli industry, but I cannot call them my friends."

What do you talk about with them?

"About business, sometimes about politics. It looks to me as if no one in Israel voted for [Ariel] Sharon: The first thing everyone I meet tells me is that he didn't vote for Sharon. I just want to know: Who did vote for Sharon? If everyone says he didn't vote for him, is there anyone who did vote for him?"

Do you learn things from Israeli advertising?

"I would say that the advertising in Israel is among the most advanced in the world, so obviously there are things to learn. I also learn from what is being done in Jordan and Dubai, countries that I visit almost once a month. At the airport, for example, I see the Nokia sign made out of flowers. That is a nice idea, and I would like to try to promote something similar here."

Despite his connections with Israelis, Abbas emphasizes that he has rejected offers made to him indirectly to advertise Israeli firms in the territories. "If there is an Israeli representative of an international company, we will work with him, but there is no chance that we will promote Israeli companies. It doesn't matter how much money they offered - I refused. Before the intifada, it wasn't accepted, but it was possible; now it simply cannot happen. Economic cooperation can exist after there will be two states and the occupation will end. In the present situation I don't believe that it is possible to work with Israelis."