In an olive grove south of Nablus, in the West Bank, Moath Omran recalled the moment his village of Burin was attacked by Israeli settlers.
“It was a big clash,” he said of the incident last month, when four Palestinians were wounded by stones thrown by settlers. Trees and houses were also damaged, the UN office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) reported.
The roots of olive oil go back to our ancestors
Moath Omran
“Every year, when they see people start harvesting the olives they start throwing rocks and also setting fire to the land,” said 30-year-old Mr Omran. Around him, people plucked olives from the trees.
“The roots of olive oil go back to our ancestors,” he said, describing how the crop is pressed into oil or used in cosmetics. “This land can grow olives very well, so we take advantage.”
But such a tradition is under threat. So far about 2,200 trees have been damaged during this year's harvest, according to OCHA's latest data.
With the harvest still continuing, the figure has already surpassed the more than 1,700 trees that were vandalised during last year’s season.
Palestinian farmers say that Israeli soldiers, who exercise military control in the West Bank, fail to intervene and protect Palestinians or their trees from such attacks.
The military said that is “a generalisation and incorrect".
“As a rule, IDF [Israeli] troops act to prevent escalation and reduce conflict when they detect acts of violence in the area,” the military told The National.
Last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross said its employees were attacked with pepper spray by Israeli settlers near Burin, while visiting the area alongside Palestinian farmers and Israeli military officials. The team was taken to an Israeli base for treatment, the ICRC said.
Environmental effect of olive tree destruction
Alongside such physical violence, destruction of the native olive tree has serious consequences for the land itself.
“In addition to the significant economic and social impact on the livelihoods and food security of the farmers, burning of olive trees has three main types of adverse effects on the environment,” said Ciro Fiorillo, head of the West Bank and Gaza office for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The result is greater soil erosion and desertification, the direct emission of the harmful gas CO2 into the atmosphere, and the loss of trees storing CO2 in their biomass.
“On average, each medium-sized olive tree removes around 8.35 kilograms of CO2 from the atmosphere annually. Thus, destroying the trees will also destroy this capacity,” Mr Fiorillo told The National.
There are repeated efforts to replant destroyed trees, including by Israeli activists, who earlier this year brought 200 trees to plant in Burin.
“A week later we came [back again] and a lot of the trees were uprooted – the new trees – so we replanted them,” said Rabbi Nava Hefetz.
A member of the Israeli organisation Rabbis for Human Rights, the 66-year-old has for years been harvesting olives alongside Israeli and foreign volunteers. Activists have also been attacked by settlers, including an elderly rabbi whose arm was broken in 2019.
“We are going to places where there is a threat on the Palestinian farmers,” she said, standing between olive trees in the Burin area.
Lack of access makes harvest even harder
While many farmers are at risk of physical violence during the harvest, others have trouble even reaching their land.
In the early 2000s, Israel began constructing a barrier snaking through the West Bank that it said was necessary for security reasons.
Some 85 per cent of the barrier has been built inside the Palestinian territory, according to the UN, rather than constructed on the internationally-recognised border with Israel.
As a result, Palestinians must apply for an Israeli permit to access their land behind the barrier.
In the village of Qaffin, for example, permit-holders are just granted a few minutes three times a day to reach their land.
“It’s not enough to serve the land,” said Taysir Harishi, a former mayor of the village.
“Three to four times per year, fires take place … you cannot get the fire brigade, you cannot even enter”, he said, standing beside the gate with scorched land behind him.
Some 73 per cent of farmers’ permit applications were refused last year, up from 29 per cent in 2014, according to figures obtained by Israeli rights NGO HaMoked.
Usually farmers in Qaffin can cross into the so-called Seam Zone three days a week, though they can enter daily during the olive harvest. Permits are restricted to landowners, who must request special permission to have others help them during the season.
“Me, my sons, my daughters, my wife, we all worked on the land” before the barrier, said farmer Ibrahim Amar. The family home in Qaffin lies just 300 metres from his crops.
“From my house to the gate, I have to walk around a kilometre and a half,” said Mr Amar, 64, standing beside the barrier. “From here to the land, around a kilometre and a half [further].”
Mr Amar said he used to grow other crops such as watermelon and corn, but his limited access means he can now only rely on hardy olive and almond trees. This loss has led him to supplement his income with taxi driving.
Despite olive trees growing throughout the West Bank, making a living from the crop is challenging.
According to figures issued by the UN, about 80,000 Palestinian families earn their income from growing olives in plantations. However, just 3 per cent of Palestinian olive oil is exported to “premium markets” beyond the Middle East, a 2018 World Bank report said.
For consumers the price is around 35 to 40 per cent higher than Turkish olive oil, due to production costs. These include everything from the relatively high price of labour to restrictions on movement, including Israeli checkpoints, said the World Bank.
Farmers in Gaza are under greater restrictions than those in the West Bank. Israel has led a blockade of the Palestinian enclave since 2007, severely limiting the entry and exit of goods and people.
Mohamed Naser Ouda, the manager of an olive press in Gaza, said farmers were able to export olive oil last year but the current harvest is proving less promising.
“This surplus was exported to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” he said. “But this year, due to low production, there is no commercial export.”
The harvest can nonetheless provide an opportunity for some in Gaza, where the World Bank estimates unemployment stands at about 50 per cent.
Talaat Abu Jiyab, a Gazan farmer, said he was inundated with calls from potential pickers but could take on no more than 50.
“This is an opportunity for an unemployed worker who waits the whole year for this season, to work for a month harvesting olives at a rate of 30 shekels ($9.4) a day,” said the 55-year-old.
A national symbol of attachment to land
Going beyond economics, Mr Abu Jiyab said olives remain an important symbol across Palestine.
“Palestinians cherish this tree,” he said, which has grown for hundreds of years.
“Whether we are in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the border areas or far from the border areas, we consider this tree like one of our children.”
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.”
INDIA SQUADS
India squad for third Test against Sri Lanka
Virat Kohli (capt), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Vijay Shankar
India squad for ODI series against Sri Lanka
Rohit Sharma (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul
Wayne Rooney's career
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- Goals: 17
Manchester United (2004-2017)
- Appearances: 496
- Goals: 253
England (2003-)
- Appearances: 119
- Goals: 53
The specs: 2019 Mercedes-Benz C200 Coupe
Price, base: Dh201,153
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 204hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 300Nm @ 1,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.7L / 100km
How does ToTok work?
The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.
The app then gives users the option add their existing phone contacts, allowing them to immediately contact people also using the application by video or voice call or via message.
Users can also invite other contacts to download ToTok to allow them to make contact through the app.
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Can NRIs vote in the election?
Indians residing overseas cannot cast their ballot abroad
Non-resident Indians or NRIs can vote only by going to a polling booth in their home constituency
There are about 3.1 million NRIs living overseas
Indians have urged political parties to extend the right to vote to citizens residing overseas
A committee of the Election Commission of India approved of proxy voting for non-resident Indians
Proxy voting means that a person can authorise someone residing in the same polling booth area to cast a vote on his behalf.
This option is currently available for the armed forces, police and government officials posted outside India
A bill was passed in the lower house of India’s parliament or the Lok Sabha to extend proxy voting to non-resident Indians
However, this did not come before the upper house or Rajya Sabha and has lapsed
The issue of NRI voting draws a huge amount of interest in India and overseas
Over the past few months, Indians have received messages on mobile phones and on social media claiming that NRIs can cast their votes online
The Election Commission of India then clarified that NRIs could not vote online
The Election Commission lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police asking it to clamp down on the people spreading misinformation
'Cheb%20Khaled'
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Monster
Directed by: Anthony Mandler
Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr., John David Washington
3/5
The Sheikh Zayed Future Energy Prize
This year’s winners of the US$4 million Sheikh Zayed Future Energy Prize will be recognised and rewarded in Abu Dhabi on January 15 as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainable Week, which runs in the capital from January 13 to 20.
From solutions to life-changing technologies, the aim is to discover innovative breakthroughs to create a new and sustainable energy future.
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Brief scores:
Day 1
Toss: South Africa, field first
Pakistan (1st innings) 177: Sarfraz 56, Masood 44; Olivier 4-48
South Africa (1st innings) 123-2: Markram 78; Masood 1-4
Scoreline
Saudi Arabia 1-0 Japan
Saudi Arabia Al Muwallad 63’