As the Israel-Gaza war continues, there has been increasing support for Palestine from the technology industry, particularly for start-ups that have been affected.
In the coming weeks, an initiative backed by the Bank of Palestine is set to use more than $2 million in raised capital to support 20 well-established Palestinian start-ups affected by the crisis.
The tech industry contributed almost $500 million to the Palestinian economy in 2021, accounting for close to 3 per cent of the gross domestic product in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, a report by the World Bank showed.
In its latest report on Palestine’s economy, the World Bank said nearly half a million jobs have been lost since the start of the war in October, with more than 200,000 of those in the Gaza Strip and 148,000 due to commuters from the West Bank losing access to work in Israel.
Another 144,000 positions have been eliminated in the West Bank “due to escalating violence and the repercussions on supply chains, production capacity, and breadwinners’ ability to access their workplace”, the institution said.
Education programmes, such as those offered by Talent Acceleration Platform (TAP), a Dutch-Palestinian upskilling and job placement company, have been severely affected, but they are still working to assist those they can.
Jafar Shunnar, co-founder of TAP, said their programmes in software development, digital marketing and business development have been hit.
“All the people that we had in Gaza working with external companies are no longer working with these companies. And all the participants in our programme are no longer participating,” Mr Shunnar told The National from the West Bank.
TAP, which has created 150 jobs for Palestinians, has partnered with HopeHub – an NGO that offers co-working space for freelancers in Gaza – to allow people to work or access Tap Education. It also helps those who have left Gaza to go to Egypt.
It has also launched a campaign called Palestine Future, which aims to connect 1,000 Palestinian youths with 1,000 global professionals from companies such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Accenture to help them with career coaching, mentorship or even job opportunities.
Lifeline
The tech economy in Palestine has always been able to thrive better than other sectors, given its ability to bypass a lot of the physical restrictions on the movement of people and goods.
Ryan Sturgill, principal at Cross Boundary and investment adviser to the Bank of Palestine, said technology had been a “lifeline for many people”.
“Since October, I think it's become even more important, certainly for people in the West Bank,” Mr Sturgill said.
“You see lots of companies, physical or digital, unable to have the people come to work or to communicate or interact effectively with the violence occurring all across the West Bank.”
He said he has been in contact with some internet companies about re-establishing hotspot Wi-Fi for the camps in Gaza, where infrastructure has been decimated.
The violence has led to increased attention from regional and global investors towards start-ups in Palestine’s tech sector, he said.
“They [Palestinian start-ups] are high-quality companies that are targeting big regional and global markets,” Mr Sturgill said.
He is leading a Bank of Palestine initiative called Safe Palestine, which aims to raise $5 million for bridge equity investments for the “most promising” start-ups that have already demonstrated significant traction.
Launched in February, the fund has done its first close at just under $2.5 million and will shortly do a first disbursement to 20 start-ups.
“We're looking at start-ups that are kind of at an inflection point,” Mr Sturgill said.
“They're kind of at the seed stage going to like a Series A and have traction, real customers, they’re revenue-generating, but they also have the most to lose potentially by not being able to extend that runway and continue to do product development and things like that.”
The companies are digital, scalable product or service-oriented start-ups from sectors like logistics, B2C booking apps, construction tech, legaltech, FinTech and healthtech.
Details of the funding will be announced shortly but the money came from “big technology companies” as well as public and individual and venture firms in Silicon Valley and across the Middle East region, Mr Sturgill said.
Rallying support
However, support from the US tech sector for Palestine has been starkly divided.
Silicon Valley is the headquarters for 35 Israeli-founded unicorns – privately held companies valued at $1 billion or more – the US-Israel Business Alliance said last year.
Paul Biggar, co-founder and former chief executive of software company CircleCI, which had a valuation of $1.7 billion in 2021, wrote a blog post in December against the tech industry for being complicit in “genocide” in Gaza.
The I Can't Sleep blog post went viral and led to Mr Biggar being contacted by people telling him about their Palestinian projects. He promptly created Tech for Palestine, a community of tech industry experts that has grown to 5,000 since its launch in January.
“The way it works is people join and we help people get connected to projects to start projects that will help Palestine in some way,” Mr Biggar, who lives in New York, told The National.
“In many cases, it's a boycott tool to help … boycott different parts of society. For example, we have some people who focus on boycotting specific companies, some people focused on boycotting general consumer applications, some people doing that via mobile apps versus Chrome extensions versus web apps.”
Adil Abbuthalha, creator of the app Boycat, is among those who joined Tech for Palestine, which he said helped to launch his product.
Launched in January, the app allows users to scan a product’s bar code to tell if it’s pro-Palestinian. If it’s not, the app will provide pro-Palestinian alternatives.
Mr Abbuthalha, who lives in the US, said the app has more than 100,000 monthly active users and estimates that its diverted sales are worth several million dollars.
“We've calculated that we're looking around just around $10 million diverted in one-time purchases, which doesn't count continuous purchases,” Mr Abbuthalha told The National.
“So, if you bought Starbucks or Coca-Cola three times a week, we only count it as once because we don't count the continuous effect.”
The free app doesn’t make any money and will redirect any donations to those raising funds for humanitarian aid.
The next stage of development will be to localise the app and give alternatives in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He also plans to create a shop on the app, which will have pro-Palestinian-only products.
Fact-checking
One of Tech for Palestine’s more successful projects so far is October 7 Fact Check, which Mr Biggar said was nearly complete by the time it joined the community.
“The tool has been incredibly effective and it continues to be developed,” Mr Biggar said.
“It has helped expose a lot of the myths around October 7 – when I say myths, I mean, atrocity propaganda which has been bought [and] is used by Israel to manufacture consent for the invasion and further genocide.”
Newscord, a website that compares news stories to reveal media bias, was also fully formed by the time it joined Tech for Palestine.
London-based Nima Akram created the website after he noticed “two distinct narratives being set from mainly the western sources”, which are “prioritising the Israeli side and covering whatever Israel says as fact”, he said.
“And then you're seeing Al Jazeera, the Middle East Eye and The National as well, I would say looking at both sides, or maybe kind of focusing on the humanitarian outcome and how it's affecting innocent people's lives.”
As a data scientist by trade, he said he wanted to use his skills to create a website that would evaluate both sides of the story and highlight the contradictions.
Newscord uses the AI technology that runs Chat GPT – Open AI’s GPT 3.5 – to compare articles with a summary of the facts and information, as well as the key contradictions.
“It's not saying this is the truth, but this is a lie. It's saying there are significant differences here,” he said.
“Hopefully, the user kind of gets to their own conclusions by seeing all of these different views.”
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Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
Uefa Nations League
League A, Group 4
Spain v England, 10.45pm (UAE)
Getting there
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Tbilisi from Dh1,025 return including taxes
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Adele: The Stories Behind The Songs
Caroline Sullivan
Carlton Books
How it works
Each player begins with one of the great empires of history, from Julius Caesar's Rome to Ramses of Egypt, spread over Europe and the Middle East.
Round by round, the player expands their empire. The more land they have, the more money they can take from their coffers for each go.
As unruled land and soldiers are acquired, players must feed them. When a player comes up against land held by another army, they can choose to battle for supremacy.
A dice-based battle system is used and players can get the edge on their enemy with by deploying a renowned hero on the battlefield.
Players that lose battles and land will find their coffers dwindle and troops go hungry. The end goal? Global domination of course.
Types of bank fraud
1) Phishing
Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
2) Smishing
The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
3) Vishing
The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
4) SIM swap
Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
5) Identity theft
Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
6) Prize scams
Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
MATCH INFO
Day 2 at Mount Maunganui
England 353
Stokes 91, Denly 74, Southee 4-88
New Zealand 144-4
Williamson 51, S Curran 2-28
More on Quran memorisation:
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
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Heavily-sugared soft drinks slip through the tax net
Some popular drinks with high levels of sugar and caffeine have slipped through the fizz drink tax loophole, as they are not carbonated or classed as an energy drink.
Arizona Iced Tea with lemon is one of those beverages, with one 240 millilitre serving offering up 23 grams of sugar - about six teaspoons.
A 680ml can of Arizona Iced Tea costs just Dh6.
Most sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, five teaspoons of sugar in a 500ml bottle.
RACE CARD
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-3 – Group 1 (PA) $65,000 (Dirt) 2,000m
7.05pm: Handicap (TB) $65,000 (Turf) 1,800m
7.40pm: Meydan Classic – Listed (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,600m
8.15pm: Nad Al Sheba Trophy – Group 3 (TB) $195,000 (T) 2,810m
8.50pm: Dubai Millennium Stakes – Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (T) 2,000m
9.25pm: Meydan Challenge – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,400m
Results
5pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (Dirt) 1,000m, Winner: Hazeem Al Raed, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Ahmed Al Shemaili (trainer)
5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 85,000 (D) 1,000m, Winner: Ghazwan Al Khalediah, Hugo Lebouc, Helal Al Alawi
6pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,400m, Winner: Dinar Al Khalediah, Patrick Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi.
6.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Faith And Fortune, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Only Smoke, Bernardo Pinheiro, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: AF Ramz, Saif Al Balushi, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
8pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 2,000m, Winner: AF Mass, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel.
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
Getting there
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly to Johannesburg or Cape Town daily. Flights cost from about Dh3,325, with a flying time of 8hours and 15 minutes. From there, fly South African Airlines or Air Namibia to Namibia’s Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, for about Dh850. Flying time is 2 hours.
The stay
Wilderness Little Kulala offers stays from £460 (Dh2,135) per person, per night. It is one of seven Wilderness Safari lodges in Namibia; www.wilderness-safaris.com.
Skeleton Coast Safaris’ four-day adventure involves joining a very small group in a private plane, flying to some of the remotest areas in the world, with each night spent at a different camp. It costs from US$8,335.30 (Dh30,611); www.skeletoncoastsafaris.com
ALL THE RESULTS
Bantamweight
Siyovush Gulmomdov (TJK) bt Rey Nacionales (PHI) by decision.
Lightweight
Alexandru Chitoran (ROU) bt Hussein Fakhir Abed (SYR) by submission.
Catch 74kg
Omar Hussein (JOR) bt Tohir Zhuraev (TJK) by decision.
Strawweight (Female)
Seo Ye-dam (KOR) bt Weronika Zygmunt (POL) by decision.
Featherweight
Kaan Ofli (TUR) bt Walid Laidi (ALG) by TKO.
Lightweight
Abdulla Al Bousheiri (KUW) bt Leandro Martins (BRA) by TKO.
Welterweight
Ahmad Labban (LEB) bt Sofiane Benchohra (ALG) by TKO.
Bantamweight
Jaures Dea (CAM) v Nawras Abzakh (JOR) no contest.
Lightweight
Mohammed Yahya (UAE) bt Glen Ranillo (PHI) by TKO round 1.
Lightweight
Alan Omer (GER) bt Aidan Aguilera (AUS) by TKO round 1.
Welterweight
Mounir Lazzez (TUN) bt Sasha Palatkinov (HKG) by TKO round 1.
Featherweight title bout
Romando Dy (PHI) v Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) by KO round 1.
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Short-term let permits explained
Homeowners and tenants are allowed to list their properties for rental by registering through the Dubai Tourism website to obtain a permit.
Tenants also require a letter of no objection from their landlord before being allowed to list the property.
There is a cost of Dh1,590 before starting the process, with an additional licence fee of Dh300 per bedroom being rented in your home for the duration of the rental, which ranges from three months to a year.
Anyone hoping to list a property for rental must also provide a copy of their title deeds and Ejari, as well as their Emirates ID.
Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Milkman by Anna Burns
Ordinary People by Diana Evans
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Circe by Madeline Miller
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The Bio
Amal likes watching Japanese animation movies and Manga - her favourite is The Ancient Magus Bride
She is the eldest of 11 children, and has four brothers and six sisters.
Her dream is to meet with all of her friends online from around the world who supported her work throughout the years
Her favourite meal is pizza and stuffed vine leaves
She ams to improve her English and learn Japanese, which many animated programmes originate in
What is safeguarding?
“Safeguarding, not just in sport, but in all walks of life, is making sure that policies are put in place that make sure your child is safe; when they attend a football club, a tennis club, that there are welfare officers at clubs who are qualified to a standard to make sure your child is safe in that environment,” Derek Bell explains.
