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On October 6, 79-year-old Chaim Peri was telling his family stories from the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, which had taken place exactly 50 years before.
When war with Egypt and Syria became apparent, Mr Peri would tell of the mere hours that passed before he was inside Egypt with the Israeli military.
Hours after regaling his war stories, Mr Peri was abducted from his home by militants.
“Now 50 years later, terrorists come into our country and it takes the army more than 10 hours to [go] such a short distance. I think people are eventually going to have to answer for that,” said Mr Peri's grandson Mai Albini.
He is referring to the relatively slow and initially chaotic response by Israeli security forces on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel. The collective failures that led to the assault from Gaza have seen calls for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign.
More than 1,400 people were killed and about 230 people were kidnapped by Hamas and taken into Gaza. Among them was Mr Peri, abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
The priority right now, says Mr Albini, should not be on the war taking place in Gaza, but on releasing the hostages.
Everyone is talking about winning the war, I think we lost this war on October 7. The best thing we can do right now is to bring them home
Mai Albini,
Abducted Israeli's grandson
“Everyone is talking about winning the war, I think we lost this war on October 7. The best thing we can do right now is to bring them home … right now nothing is more important” he said next to the municipality building of Jerusalem, just after an air raid siren had sent people rushing to shelters
Few – if any – residential areas in southern Israel are situated as close to Gaza as Kibbutz Nir Oz, which Mr Albini describes as his second home. About a quarter of its 400 residents are believed to have been killed, kidnapped, or injured on October 7 – the rest have left.
Mr Albini is scathing in his criticism of the government – both for what he says is its lack of support for the people in the current crisis as well as its actions in the last ten months.
Mass demonstrations have erupted across Israel in the past ten months to protest significant judicial reforms introduced by the most far-right Israel cabinet to date.
“We’ve seen now that this government is an empty eggshell. People all around Israel are doing amazing things for the hostages, for the people whose homes are gone,” said Mr Albini.
“I'm deeply sad to say that we’ve kind of proven what we’ve been saying all these months. Now, in the moment of truth, when we need them the most, they are just not there.”
The temperature is high in Israel after October 7, something that politicians and civilians have often referred to as Israel's own 9/11.
But even as international calls grow for a ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli authorities are refusing to back down.
The Israeli government has carried out significant retaliatory strikes since October 7, with soldiers and tanks now inside the enclave. More than 8,500 people have been killed in Gaza, about half of them children.
“I sympathise with all the civilians, everywhere. I keep thinking about the children, always. The elderly and the grown-ups, they know how this world can be,” said Mr Albini.
“The children do not deserve this, Israeli children do not deserve to be taken hostage and celebrate their birthdays in dark tunnels. Palestinian children don't deserve to have their homes bombed. We are stuck with this government, they are struck with a terrorist organisation who doesn’t care a tiny bit for them.”
A resident of Jerusalem for two years, Mr Albini is vocal in his criticism of Hamas and the Israeli government, but also his love for ordinary Palestinian people.
“I walk with Palestinians, I love them, they are my friends. They are here and they are not going anywhere, and we are here, and we’re not going anywhere. So only two options – keep fighting, or choose peace.”
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'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
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Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Infobox
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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.”
