Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
European hostility to protests on the plight of Gaza has led a UN special rapporteur to warn the right of freedom to demonstrate is under strain due to countries' use of legal levers to ban pro-Palestine marches.
Since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, authorities across Europe, notably in Germany and France, have taken measures to quell protests by pro-Palestinian supporters.
From adapting existing laws to using powers under their terrorism acts, numerous countries have implemented bans on marches, chanting, flag-waving and the use of certain slogans.
UN special rapporteur Clement Voule told The National the measures could erode human freedom.
“I am concerned about the continuing global undue restrictions, including impositions of blanket bans, by states around the world on protests, especially those in defence of Palestinians’ rights and those calling for a ceasefire in the Israel/Hamas armed conflict,” he said.
“This sets a very worrying precedent that could have a great impact on the exercise of our fundamental rights and freedoms.”
He said in times of crisis like today, people should have “space to raise their voices, grievances and solidarity, and calls for peace, justice and security”.
He said the banning of rallies has been “disproportionate and arbitrary” and could result in “a serious impact on our freedoms”.
Among several European countries to have explored legal options, Germany has banned marches and slogans and France is looking to bring in new legal powers to fine people who criticise Israel publicly.
“This would be very damaging for democracy and could contribute to strengthening the rise of authoritarianism around the world,” Mr Voule said.
“It would be a major setback for human rights as a whole. The rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of expression are vital for the protection and promotion of all human rights and they are vital for marginalised groups to be included in the decision-making.”
Amnesty International has also raised concerns and told The National the speed at which governments have acted to impose measures is at “fever pitch”.
What steps have been taken?
Germany has taken a tough stance against the attack on Israel by banning Hamas and its hallmarks – which includes the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
In contrast, the Netherlands has decided the phrase is “not hateful”.
It is one of several measures Germany is taking to tackle pro-Palestine protests, which have led to marches being banned, the closure of an organisation called Samidoun, which it has accused of spreading anti-Jewish propaganda, and raids on centres with suspected links to Hamas and Hezbollah.
Former diplomat Hans-Jakob Schindler, of the Counter Extremism Project, said Germany's measures show that to be treated as a potential threat groups no longer have to openly call for violence.
“Of course, support for Hamas, or attempts to support Hamas, will not necessarily stop in Germany but every time you have one of these bans it makes it more difficult, it makes it harder, it makes it riskier for individuals,” he said.
Courts prevented the government imposing blanket bans, so it instead circumnavigated existing legislation to prohibit rallies on a case-by-case basis under the guise that they pose a potential risk to public order.
Incitement to hatred and the burning of Israeli flags “are not examples of people embracing their freedoms. These are crimes”, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
Germany's government is also seeking legal changes to punish people who criticise Israel and is reviewing the law on incitement to give it the power to strip people of citizenship if they support Hamas.
Officials in Berlin gave schools the power to ban Palestinian keffiyeh headscarves and imagery of the map of Israel in the colours of Palestine.
France stepped back from a blanket ban on marches but relinquished power to local authorities to assess whether it would cause a potential risk to public order.
Free speech in Europe has been narrowed in record time. It is leaving victims without any voices
Julia Hall,
Amnesty International
Its government is proposing new laws to punish those who deny the existence of Israel with up to five years' in prison or heavy fines for offences such as insulting Israel or provoking hatred or violence against Israel.
In London, attempts to ban marches which coincided with Armistice Day floundered and efforts by former home secretary Suella Braverman to ban flag-waving were not supported by the police.
But officers still successfully used public order legislation to remove dozens of protesters from a sit-in at King's Cross Station near the city centre.
It is examining new measures to lower the threshold for banning a march that is considered to pose an existential risk to the right of assembly.
Protests have also been banned in Austria, Hungary, Poland and Switzerland.
The Netherlands has given powers to its mayors to intervene in pro-Hamas demonstrations and some protests have been forced to relocate.
The Dutch government failed in a bid to condemn the use of pro-Palestinian slogans as inciting violence.
Spain and Italy have allowed public demonstrations on the matter.
Fears more draconian measures will be introduced
Amnesty International’s expert on counter-terrorism and human rights in Europe, Julia Hall, told The National the fast pace with which measures are being introduced are “very concerning”.
“What people can say and do is narrowing by the day,” she said.
“France is particularly problematic, they are proposing to criminalise people who criticise Israel. What we are seeing is something new.
“We have gone from marches being banned to the narrowing of what speech can be used.
“Free speech in Europe has been narrowed in record time. It is leaving victims without any voices.
“I do not think this will be a one-off.
“The chilling effect of this is that people are afraid. It will create silence among people who would have gone out and protested and it really is very worrying.”
UN criticises politicians for inflammatory rhetoric
The UN has criticised the language that has been used by some politicians.
In the UK, Ms Braverman came under fire from opposition politicians for “sowing the seeds of hatred” for her use of "inflammatory language" after she branded pro-Palestinian demonstrations “hate marches”.
“Banning peaceful protests, or branding them as “hate protests”, further contributes to polarisation,” Mr Voule said.
“Politicians and leaders should ensure responsible use of language and avoid the use of such divisive and vague rhetoric, which also leads to stigmatisation of certain groups.
“I am also concerned about reports indicating political pressure towards law enforcement to restrict or ban pro-Palestinian protests, which raises further concern that restrictions are for political purposes rather than for legitimate reasons allowed by law.
“It is in the time of war that people need to come together and voice their discontent and pressure the belligerents to stop the violence and to prevent the commission of grave human rights violations and war crimes.
Mr Voule added: "Recent examples show the importance of anti-war protests such as in the context of the Iraq war, Vietnam War, among others. We were all allowed to protest then, although we had different positions.
“This time should not be different – people should be allowed to protest in the context of the continuing war in Gaza and to stop the unfolding humanitarian crisis and suffering of civilians.”
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
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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.”
Andor
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Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: From Dh147,000
Available: Now
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European arms
Known EU weapons transfers to Ukraine since the war began: Germany 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Luxembourg 100 NLAW anti-tank weapons, jeeps and 15 military tents as well as air transport capacity. Belgium 2,000 machine guns, 3,800 tons of fuel. Netherlands 200 Stinger missiles. Poland 100 mortars, 8 drones, Javelin anti-tank weapons, Grot assault rifles, munitions. Slovakia 12,000 pieces of artillery ammunition, 10 million litres of fuel, 2.4 million litres of aviation fuel and 2 Bozena de-mining systems. Estonia Javelin anti-tank weapons. Latvia Stinger surface to air missiles. Czech Republic machine guns, assault rifles, other light weapons and ammunition worth $8.57 million.
NBA Finals results
Game 1: Warriors 124, Cavaliers 114
Game 2: Warriors 122, Cavaliers 103
Game 3: Cavaliers 102, Warriors 110
Game 4: In Cleveland, Sunday (Monday morning UAE)
Wonka
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More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
Junichiro Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
