Property companies led the Dubai's stock market yesterday after Majid Al Futtaim Holding said profit rose 21 per cent last year from malls and hotels as tourists flooded the country following the Arab Spring.
Emaar Properties, the biggest developer in the region that manages the Dubai Mall, rose 3.2 per cent to Dh2.54 a piece. Majid Al Futtaim, which is not publicly listed, said operating profit reached Dh2.7 billion from major retail and hotel developments such as Mall of the Emirates. The DFM General Index added 1.5 per cent to 1361.24 points.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index added 0.3 per cent to 2359.75 points.
Elsewhere in the region, Kuwait's index added 0.4 per cent to 5812.10 points. Bahrain's measure gained 0.3 per cent to 1144.91 points. Oman's MSM 30 Index was unchanged at 5593.63 points. Qatar's QE Index slipped 0.2 per cent to 8391.82 points. The Saudi Tadawul All-Share Index added 0.1 per cent to 6473.02 points.
[ halsayegh@thenational.ae ]
Small Things Like These
Director: Tim Mielants
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Emily Watson, Eileen Walsh
Rating: 4/5
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
Veil (Object Lessons)
Rafia Zakaria
Bloomsbury Academic
Forced Deportations
While the Lebanese government has deported a number of refugees back to Syria since 2011, the latest round is the first en-mass campaign of its kind, say the Access Center for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization which monitors the conditions of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
“In the past, the Lebanese General Security was responsible for the forced deportation operations of refugees, after forcing them to sign papers stating that they wished to return to Syria of their own free will. Now, the Lebanese army, specifically military intelligence, is responsible for the security operation,” said Mohammad Hasan, head of ACHR.
In just the first four months of 2023 the number of forced deportations is nearly double that of the entirety of 2022.
Since the beginning of 2023, ACHR has reported 407 forced deportations – 200 of which occurred in April alone.
In comparison, just 154 people were forcfully deported in 2022.
Violence
Instances of violence against Syrian refugees are not uncommon.
Just last month, security camera footage of men violently attacking and stabbing an employee at a mini-market went viral. The store’s employees had engaged in a verbal altercation with the men who had come to enforce an order to shutter shops, following the announcement of a municipal curfew for Syrian refugees.
“They thought they were Syrian,” said the mayor of the Nahr el Bared municipality, Charbel Bou Raad, of the attackers.
It later emerged the beaten employees were Lebanese. But the video was an exemplary instance of violence at a time when anti-Syrian rhetoric is particularly heated as Lebanese politicians call for the return of Syrian refugees to Syria.