Israeli border guards fired tear gas and warning shots at crowds attempting to scale the border wall from Lebanon on Saturday, as demonstrators returned to the frontier for the second day in a row.
Scores of young men climbed the concrete barricade separating Israel and Lebanon at several points across the south, raising the Iranian, Hezbollah, and Palestinian flags, as well as tossing Molotov cocktails onto the Israeli side of the frontier –all barely 24 hours after a member of Hezbollah was shot dead by IDF soldiers whilst attempting to storm the fence in a similar protest.
Yet the protests in south Lebanon were more orchestrated than those seen across Israel, the West Bank, and on the border with Jordan.
Political factions had bussed in supporters from across the country – vehicles draped in the flags of Hezbollah and the SSNP clogged the narrow roads leading to the border village of Kafr Killa.
Mysterious men in caps and sunglasses barked orders at young men, eager to show their bravery.
Amid olive groves on the other side of the concrete barrier, three Israeli army trucks were positioned menacingly as rocks rained into the trees in front of them.
Abu Ali, a 33-year-old from Ain Al Hilweh refugee camp, broke into a hot sweat as he smashed rocks into throwable sizes for his friends.
“Gaza is a massacre. But this here is also a frontline. I am twenty metres from Israel. I am the revolution in Gaza. I am the revolution in Sheikh Jarrah.”
Yet, like many, Abu Ali was born in Lebanon and has never been able to visit his homeland. It was not lost on him that climbing the concrete wall – dangerous as it may be, was for now the closest he will get to Palestinian territory.
“If they shoot me at the top, maybe I will fall onto Palestinian soil,” he joked, before ricocheting a heap of clay off the camera tower.
The Lebanese army had set up further checkpoints across the south, in an attempt to prevent Palestinians from travelling from refugee camps across Lebanon to the border.
The day also coincided with the 73rd anniversary of the Nakhba – when hundreds of thousands of Palestinian fled their homes in the holy land, never to return.
The day is marked by demonstrations every year and is a hugely symbolic day for Palestinians living across the region.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said that three protestors had been injured in the demonstration.
The protests had been arranged after 21-year-old Mohammed Tahan, a Hezbollah member, was shot dead in a smaller protest on Friday. Israel’s eastern border with Jordan has seen similar demonstrations, with demonstrators on Friday attempting to charge across the Allenby Bridge.
On Friday night the IDF claimed to foil a group attempting to “infiltrate into Israeli territory and carry out an attack in the area of Metula.” Adding that the group fled after warning shots were fired, and left behind suspected explosive materials.
On Thursday three rockets were fired by an unknown group in Lebanon into Israeli territory. The IDF said no one was hurt.
Brief scores:
QPR 0
Watford 1
Capoue 45' 1
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari, Jonathan Cape
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
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.”
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
Turkish Ladies
Various artists, Sony Music Turkey
Guns N’ Roses’s last gig before Abu Dhabi was in Hong Kong on November 21. We were there – and here’s what they played, and in what order. You were warned.
- It’s So Easy
- Mr Brownstone
- Chinese Democracy
- Welcome to the Jungle
- Double Talkin’ Jive
- Better
- Estranged
- Live and Let Die (Wings cover)
- Slither (Velvet Revolver cover)
- Rocket Queen
- You Could Be Mine
- Shadow of Your Love
- Attitude (Misfits cover)
- Civil War
- Coma
- Love Theme from The Godfather (movie cover)
- Sweet Child O’ Mine
- Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb cover)
- Wish You Were Here (instrumental Pink Floyd cover)
- November Rain
- Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden cover)
- Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan cover)
- Nightrain
Encore:
- Patience
- Don’t Cry
- The Seeker (The Who cover)
- Paradise City
