Palestinian hoping to break into Wall street, looking for advice
Hey Guys, I just finished my sophomore year at a small liberal arts (semish target) school, rising junior, and I am honestly open to anything in finance, whether it's Investment Banking, equity research, investments, quant finance ( if I take that route, I would go for a master's in MFE straight after graduation). To give you background about myself, I was born in Palestine and was raised in Saudi Arabia for 14 years, and did high school in the USA, and now a rising junior in uni. My family has a factory that produces a type of sweet, it's well known sweet worldwide and you guys prolly eat it everyday and i am not saying i dont wanna be specific (privacy), and is internationally certified and a couple of weeks ago we had a european delegation visit the factory and its located in Palestine (West Bank). My question is, given the sensitivity regarding the issue, will it be sensible to bring that up? Say, for example, I am interviewing for an IB Consumer Analyst role. Can that be a talking point, or should I just ignore Palestine as a whole or say Jordan instead? lmk what you guys think
Fair enough. regarding Israel, obviously I am not gonna bring up the convo, unless someone directly asks me what i think and ill just say what they're doing in gaza is horrible and obviously oct 7 is horrible too. I am not sure and i dont wanna make assumptions but are there people that full on support israel and what they're doing in gaza, i mean like full no no sympathy for the innocent lives
Can't for the life of me imagine how anyone could support what Israel is doing. That being said, my manager, my coworkers all do-- tread extremely carefully here.
You would not get a job in my group at my eb if you said that. Palestine will only hurt you and I’m saying this as someone who has nothing to do with either group. Say Jordan.
Obviously no one will hire you if you say anything like that. This has to be a troll…
Outside of select groups of progressives and antisemites most of the US supports Israel. Doesn’t mean that you’ll face discrimination just as a function of where you were born, but actively speaking out against a longtime US ally where opposition has a long history of antisemitism is not the right move.
lol why am i getting 5 shits and the Intern in s&t gets none. is WSO pro palestine?
I think you need to worry about brevity more than anything else. Just mention your family owns a business if its relevant, it doesn't add much credibility other than to a "why this coverage group" kind of question.
Thanks
This industry has a lot of EXTREMELY pampered, obnoxious, and sheltered bourgeois babies. From interns to, especially, seniors. Don't bring up Palestine, for your own sake. The only pro-pal guys you're likely gonna meet are white male gen-z analysts who are too rare and low on the totem pole to help you anyway
I would agree here. It’s just high risk, low reward to mention it given the current environment. Just say you were raised in Saudi Arabia and then went to high school in the states.
Hey friend. I understand your conundrum as a Palestinian myself. My best advice would be to always err on the side of caution. It’s not as taboo as it once was to be Palestinian, particularly amongst juniors, but would just be hesitant to share things as I have always myself. At days end, it’s just a job and I know it’s unfortunate that you have to worry about it since it’s just your natural background, but you gotta look out for yourself more than anything.
I'd love to connect and hear about your experience. can you dm me?
Just say you're israeli
yes an israeli that lived in saudi for 14 years, speaks fluent arabic and barely knows hebrew with a not so jewish last name. good idea
Like 20% of israel is arab. Just say you were born native instead of a couple miles down in gaza, and your family happened to move to SA when you were younger.
Or if all else fails, say you're from Saudi Arabia. No american banker is going to know the difference between israeli, palestinian or SA arab.
As usual the ignorant junior crowd speaks
Several of the most important senior bankers and private equity people in the street are Jordanian / Palestinian / Lebanese with a smattering of Egyptians.
Every CEO on the sell or buy side is in the Middle East once every two months these days. They know what’s what and how to think about the region intelligently.
That said, when you’re starting out whether you’re from Great Neck or Gaza, my strong recommendation is that I wouldn’t spend any time on your background / childhood. Your life starts at college and focuses only your grades / extracurriculars / internships / career ambitions.
Unless you're part of the ownership structure of the family business, I wouldn't bring it up. You may have to declare it during compliance screening during onboarding but I would be surprised if it were an issue. No conflict of interest - no problem.
I would echo the sentiments about keeping it simple, if you have been educated in the US for the past few years, nobody is going to care where you were born 2 decades ago. Good luck.
How are you old enough to have been born in the British mandate of Palestine and only be a junior in college? Can’t seem to find Palestine on any recent maps
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Hmmmm and they say anti Zionism isn’t anti semitism? How does the Jewish religion have anything to do with this thread?
As a Jew and proud Zionist, I can confidently say that I would have no issue with you being Palestinian.
Speaking for myself and most other people in my circles, I can tell you that all we want is Hamas to release the hostages, surrender, and leave Gaza. Doing so would benefit everyone, particularly Palestinians who Hamas kills for opposing their rule, see here: https://nypost.com/2025/03/31/world-news/anti-hamas-protester-tortured-to-death-in-gaza-as-warning-to-others/).
Tl;dr, you seem intelligent and competent. Be personable, and you should be fine. Best of luck to you!
I agree with you. But we also have to look at the other side and the more than 40,000 people killed, including more than 10k children. I don't like the narrative that hamas is hiding behind the civilians, which yes i agree, but that doesn't give israel the right to do whatever. Imagine a school shooter in a high school and they just bomb the school given that the shooter is hiding behind the innocents. Both are horrible, israeli far right needs to be out, and hamas needs to be out
You seem intelligent, and massive credit to you for being respectful and articulate. I don’t necessarily agree entirely with your assessment of the situation, but many people nowadays aren’t willing to have conversations like this without getting belligerent, so I appreciate that.
I will take issue with your school shooter analogy: a school shooter is an individual. Hamas is an armed terrorist group embedded across dense urban areas, wielding military-grade weapons while governing Gaza. It doesn’t really convert considering scale, legality, and context. Hamas systematically places rocket launchers, weapons caches, and command centers inside or beneath civilian infrastructure: schools, mosques, hospitals, and apartment buildings, in direct violation of Article 58 of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions. This isn’t just documented by the IDF; Tye UN, and even Hamas leaders themselves attest to this (e.g., Fathi Hammad, 2014: “We desire death like you desire life”). Israel, in contrast, conducts warning evacuations (roof knocking, leaflets, calls, texts), even to enemy populations (including Gaza), to minimize civilian casualties, actions which are not required under international law. Their military strategy follows proportionality and distinction, as codified under the Law of Armed Conflict. Under international law, when a party (Hamas) uses civilians as human shields, responsibility for resulting casualties shifts primarily to that party, not the military (Israel) responding to aggression. This is echoed in ICRC Commentaries and rulings by international tribunals.
I also take issue with 40,000+ figure, as it is largely unverified and sourced from Hamas’s “Gaza Health Ministry,” which does not distinguish combatants from civilians and has admitted to exaggerations. A May 2024 UN review found that Hamas inflated child death tolls by thousands. Other studies have drawn similar conclusions: https://henryjacksonsociety.org/publications/questionable-counting/
To summarize, here’s how I and most people on my side see it. When you have a country the size of NJ, which is attacked by a terrorist group which deliberately targeted civilians for the sole purpose of killing Jews, allowing that group to remain in power amounts to suicide. It would be like telling Ukraine not to respond to Russia because a chance exists for (tragic) civilian casualties, including amongst people who might not necessarily support the war. Their deaths are Putin’s fault for starting that whole situation, same with Hamas.
I’ll conclude. If you have by chance any family affected by all of this, I just want you to know how profoundly sorry I am for what they are going through. Most of us, myself included, only want peace between Jews and Palestinians. I wish something had come of the deals that had been brokered in the past (i.e. Arafat 2000, etc.).
Again, all of my best to you, in your career and otherwise.
The school shooting analogy is a horrible one. There are huge differences between civil and military law.
It’s like saying, why is verstappen allowed to drive 120 mph in Monaco, and if I do it I’ll go to prison? Like there are different road rules for driving in a Grand Prix and driving regularly, There are differences between military protocols and civilian/police protocols.
You seem really entitled. I wouldn’t hire you. You want to brag about your family - halfway, the part that benefits you, not the part you are worried about. That’s the bigger issue.
In terms of what to say, it is not rocket science. “I was born in the West Bank and my family moved to Saudi when I was young.” That’s it. No one is going to start making you take a loyalty oath. You can volunteer whatever you want. The question will be “tell me about yourself.” Maybe you’ll get a “where did you grow up”. You will not get a “where were tou born”
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