West Bank Palestinians say it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between soldiers and settlers. EPA
West Bank Palestinians say it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between soldiers and settlers. EPA
West Bank Palestinians say it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between soldiers and settlers. EPA
West Bank Palestinians say it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between soldiers and settlers. EPA

'Settlers used to beat us - now they have uniforms': West Bank at boiling point


Thomas Helm
  • English
  • Arabic

The occupied West Bank, long a fulcrum of Israel-Palestine tensions, is at boiling point.

It could soon become another front in the war that began on October 7, when Hamas stormed the south of Israel, killing about 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240.

In the chaos and violent crackdown that has followed, 135 Palestinians, including 42 children, have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, the UN has said.

Their deaths have been overshadowed by the devastation, in Gaza where about 9,500 Palestinians have died, but the sharp increase in West Bank violence could portend more widespread bloodshed.

Israeli settlers in the region have also seized the best chance they have had for years to dispossess Palestinians of their land violently. They have killed eight Palestinians, including a child.

Forced displacement

As he loaded his village's modest possessions, much of it donated by the international community, Abdel Halim Al Til, 26, had little to tell the world other than the event that finally convinced him to leave the plains on which his family had been herding animals for decades.

“The settlers came. One of them, after beating up our family, pointed a gun at the head of my father and told him, 'If you don't leave, you will be killed.’”

Advocacy group B’Tselem says that 858 West Bank Palestinians have been forcibly transferred since the war began.

They come from 32 different communities. Thirteen of them have been entirely wiped out. The numbers do not include displacement that has taken place in recent days.

Tall order

The US, Israel’s most important ally, is pleading with the government to get a grip on the rising number of incidents, a tall order given many of its far-right ministers are themselves hardline settlers.

The director of the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency warned last week that settler violence could open up a second front in the West Bank.

“People often miss the point with settler violence,” Yehuda Shaul, a former Israeli soldier turned peace activist, told a group of foreign journalists.

“They think it’s a few hundred or thousand mad settlers who do whatever they want to do. That’s not a deep enough understanding.

"The true story is an entire Israeli system that does almost nothing to enforce the law on settlers.”

The Israeli settlement of Rimonim looms above an abandoned Bedouin village whose residents fled after settler attacks mere days after October 7. Willy Lowry / The National
The Israeli settlement of Rimonim looms above an abandoned Bedouin village whose residents fled after settler attacks mere days after October 7. Willy Lowry / The National

Mr Shaul knows the people committing the crimes better than most in Israel’s beleaguered left, which for so long has struggled to convince Israelis of their contention that Palestinian rights in the West Bank are crucial to Israeli security.

Mr Shaul came from a settlement. Much of his close family still live in them and embrace their expansionist, often fanatically religious ideology.

“When I was in the military, the argument of peace activists was that settlers are violent, and the Israeli army stands idly by,” he adds.

“What we’ve started seeing in the past couple of years is settlers attacking Palestinians and that the military joins them.”

As regular troops are diverted to fight Hamas and Hezbollah, the state is now outsourcing the defence of settlements to the deeply ideological settlers.

Teenage boys, many of them young offenders, who used to beat Palestinians with sticks dressed in dusty farmers’ garb, are now turning up in military fatigues holding guns.

“What we’ve started to see in the past few months, and even more so since October 7, is yet worse. Palestinians on the ground now say it’s not clear who is attacking them: military or settlers?” Mr Shaul says.

“Half a year ago, these guys were beating Palestinians up in civilian clothes – now they come in uniform to beat them up.

“It is no longer that the army is supporting them. They are the army.”

Mr Shaul believes that the regular army who remain are deployed in a manner that makes it impossible for them to approach the situation fairly.

“If you’re a soldier on the ground, it’s us against the Palestinians,” he says.

“The settlers speak Hebrew. If you deploy to an area for months, the settlers have been there before you, so they will tell you their version of events. They will look after you and invite you for schnitzel on the Friday Shabbat meal.

“Under international law, soldiers are supposed to protect Palestinians. The order they actually receive from the command is to protect settlers.”

Palestinians are not surprised by the onslaught.

“Instead of taking the land, they empty the land,” says Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist in the West Bank who documents displacement in Area C, the part of the West Bank fully controlled by Israel.

“The most important thing [for them] is that they don't see Palestinians here.”

Activists say settler violence is just one more injustice designed to make life untenable for Palestinians.

Open front

Even in Area A, controlled by the Palestinian Authority, residents are seething at the cost imposed on them by Israel.

Ammar Abu Baker, the head of the Jenin Chamber of Commerce, told The National last week that the West Bank is already an open front of the October 7 war.

His city is arguably the centre of Palestinian resistance in the West Bank – but Mr Abu Baker is simply a mainstream local official and owner of a series of successful toy shops, who says Israel is shooting itself in the foot by depriving the people of Jenin and the West Bank an income.

Jenin has seen an uptick in Israeli raids during recent months. AFP
Jenin has seen an uptick in Israeli raids during recent months. AFP

“We haven’t recovered from Covid-19,” he says in a top-floor office just minutes from the entrance to the city’s refugee camp, one of the most violent areas between Israelis and Palestinians.

“We had only just left the ICU, let’s say – now, we’re back in it.”

Jenin relies on people travelling to it to shop, particularly the affluent Arab-Israeli community who typically cross into the West Bank at weekends. Those Israeli-controlled borders are now shut.

Mr Abu Baker says 6,000 Arab Israelis arrive on an average Saturday. "If each spends 1,000 shekels, that’s six million for the economy – now they’re gone,” he says.

“The front has never stopped. This Israeli government is not seeing things clearly. It is taking its people to catastrophe."

Mr Shaul hopes that the situation in the West Bank will soon register with Israel’s centre-left, but he is far from certain it will.

“The dust is still in the air,” he says. “We’ll have to wait and see whether people understand there isn’t enough army to take every hilltop in the West Bank while managing the southern and northern front.”

What is so frustrating for him about this emerging crisis is the fact Israel can take direct ownership of solving it.

Such an eventuality could require painful soul-searching about the injustices that led to today’s tensions, but that is uncertain and could depend on the postwar fate of Prime Minister Benjamin Mr Netanyahu and his hardline allies.

The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3.6-litre%2C%20V6%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eeight-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E285hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E353Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDh159%2C900%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The President's Cake

Director: Hasan Hadi

Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem 

Rating: 4/5

The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting 

2. Prayer 

3. Hajj 

4. Shahada 

5. Zakat 

AIDA%20RETURNS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ECarol%20Mansour%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAida%20Abboud%2C%20Carol%20Mansour%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.5.%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
VEZEETA PROFILE

Date started: 2012

Founder: Amir Barsoum

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: HealthTech / MedTech

Size: 300 employees

Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)

Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC

Company%20profile
%3Cp%3EName%3A%20Tabby%3Cbr%3EFounded%3A%20August%202019%3B%20platform%20went%20live%20in%20February%202020%3Cbr%3EFounder%2FCEO%3A%20Hosam%20Arab%2C%20co-founder%3A%20Daniil%20Barkalov%3Cbr%3EBased%3A%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3ESector%3A%20Payments%3Cbr%3ESize%3A%2040-50%20employees%3Cbr%3EStage%3A%20Series%20A%3Cbr%3EInvestors%3A%20Arbor%20Ventures%2C%20Mubadala%20Capital%2C%20Wamda%20Capital%2C%20STV%2C%20Raed%20Ventures%2C%20Global%20Founders%20Capital%2C%20JIMCO%2C%20Global%20Ventures%2C%20Venture%20Souq%2C%20Outliers%20VC%2C%20MSA%20Capital%2C%20HOF%20and%20AB%20Accelerator.%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

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.”

Opening day UAE Premiership fixtures, Friday, September 22:

  • Dubai Sports City Eagles v Dubai Exiles
  • Dubai Hurricanes v Abu Dhabi Saracens
  • Jebel Ali Dragons v Abu Dhabi Harlequins
AndhaDhun

Director: Sriram Raghavan

Producer: Matchbox Pictures, Viacom18

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte, Anil Dhawan

Rating: 3.5/5

The five pillars of Islam
SQUADS

Bangladesh (from): Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mahmudullah Riyad, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das, Taijul Islam, Mosaddek Hossain, Nayeem Hasan, Mehedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadat Hossain, Abu Jayed

Afghanistan (from): Rashid Khan (capt), Ihsanullah Janat, Javid Ahmadi, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, Ikram Alikhil, Mohammad Nabi, Qais Ahmad, Sayed Ahmad Shirzad, Yamin Ahmadzai, Zahir Khan Pakteen, Afsar Zazai, Shapoor Zadran

EA Sports FC 24
The alternatives

• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.

• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.

• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.

2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.

• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases -  but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.

BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES

Friday (UAE kick-off times)

Borussia Dortmund v Paderborn (11.30pm)

Saturday 

Bayer Leverkusen v SC Freiburg (6.30pm)

Werder Bremen v Schalke (6.30pm)

Union Berlin v Borussia Monchengladbach (6.30pm)

Eintracht Frankfurt v Wolfsburg (6.30pm)

Fortuna Dusseldof v  Bayern Munich (6.30pm)

RB Leipzig v Cologne (9.30pm)

Sunday

Augsburg v Hertha Berlin (6.30pm)

Hoffenheim v Mainz (9pm)

 

 

 

 

 

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Desert Warrior

Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley

Director: Rupert Wyatt

Rating: 3/5

The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

UAE Premiership

Results

Dubai Exiles 24-28 Jebel Ali Dragons
Abu Dhabi Harlequins 43-27 Dubai Hurricanes

Final
Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Jebel Ali Dragons, Friday, March 29, 5pm at The Sevens, Dubai

The specs

Engine: 1.5-litre turbo

Power: 181hp

Torque: 230Nm

Transmission: 6-speed automatic

Starting price: Dh79,000

On sale: Now

Dhadak

Director: Shashank Khaitan

Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana

Stars: 3

COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMascotte%20Health%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMiami%2C%20US%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Bora%20Hamamcioglu%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EOnline%20veterinary%20service%20provider%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%241.2%20million%20raised%20in%20seed%20funding%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs: 2018 Jeep Compass

Price, base: Dh100,000 (estimate)

Engine: 2.4L four-cylinder

Transmission: Nine-speed automatic

Power: 184bhp at 6,400rpm

Torque: 237Nm at 3,900rpm

Fuel economy, combined: 9.4L / 100km

Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Kill%20Bill%20Volume%201
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Quentin%20Tarantino%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Uma%20Thurman%2C%20David%20Carradine%20and%20Michael%20Madsen%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%204.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
What to watch out for:

Algae, waste coffee grounds and orange peels will be used in the pavilion's walls and gangways

The hulls of three ships will be used for the roof

The hulls will painted to make the largest Italian tricolour in the country’s history

Several pillars more than 20 metres high will support the structure

Roughly 15 tonnes of steel will be used

Team Angel Wolf Beach Blast takes place every Wednesday between 4:30pm and 5:30pm

FOOTBALL TEST

Team X 1 Team Y 0

Scorers

Red card

Man of the Match

 

Arabian Gulf Cup FINAL

Al Nasr 2

(Negredo 1, Tozo 50)

Shabab Al Ahli 1

(Jaber 13)

Updated: November 06, 2023, 7:09 AM