A Day of Rage planned by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem passed largely without incident on Friday.
The response to an Israeli military raid that killed 11 Palestinians a few days earlier was expected to flare up after Friday prayers at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
But hundreds streamed out of Bab Al Silsilah, one of the compound’s main entrances, in the same quiet manner that they entered about an hour earlier.
In half an hour, just one worshipper remonstrated briefly with Israeli guards directly outside the entrance to the compound, perhaps the most historically contested site in the decades-long conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.
More than 100 people were wounded during Wednesday's shoot-out, when Israeli soldiers tried to arrest suspected gunmen in Nablus's Old City. Several of those killed were elderly civilians.
Hours after the raid, rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza, prompting Israel to respond with air strikes on what it said were military installations belonging to militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza strip.
The incident sparked immediate demonstrations across the West Bank and Gaza, and the atmosphere was still tense on Friday.
There may have been little outward animosity at Al Aqsa, but the suspicion was clear, something not lost on Israeli forces that walked up and down the street giving frequent updates into their radios.
An owner of a nearby cafe told The National he still expected protests, “maybe in half an hour, maybe in a couple of days. We don’t know”.
More provocation to Palestinians also came on Friday, as Israeli settlers shot and seriously wounded two Palestinians in the northern occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said.
Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Israeli government is also advancing plans to build thousands of new settler homes in the West Bank in a move expected to further stoke anger.
On Thursday, hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated in the commercial city of Nablus as they responded to calls by the Lions Den resistance movement to mark the 11 deaths.
“Try to ask who we are. We are the men of the den,” the protesters chanted in unison.
Similar scenes were seen in Jenin, Ramallah, Hebron and Bethlehem on Thursday night, nut so far few reports of protest on Friday.
Many in Nablus spent Wednesday evening and Thursday going from home to home to offer condolences to the families of the victims.
“The number of homes hosting wakes for people killed is a true testament to our resistance,” Tayseer Nasrallah, a Fatah Revolutionary Council member, told The National.
“The scene on Wednesday was exceptionally bloody because the occupying forces believe themselves to be above international law, with no respect for human rights.”
The tension comes at a time when Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right cabinet member, has officially been given responsibility over Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The government has granted approval for 7,000 new homes in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite international condemnation.
Mr Smotrich, himself a settler, is considered an Israeli ultranationalist and supports the annexation of the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that 2023 had so far been the bloodiest in more than 22 years, since the Second Intifada, or uprising, that began in 2000 and ended in 2005.
It said 62 Palestinians, gunmen and civilians, have been killed this year.
Ten Israelis and a Ukrainian tourist died in Palestinian attacks in the same period, according to Israel's Foreign Ministry.
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Uefa Nations League: How it works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
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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.”
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Name: Tratok Portal
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