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Israeli ministers have condemned pro-Palestine protests that are sweeping US campuses amid alarm in Israel over growing international criticism of its war in Gaza.
Thousands of students at universities across the US have been protesting for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Israeli occupation.
Almost 100 people were arrested at the University of California on Wednesday and demonstrators at Columbia University in New York, where the movement started, are in a showdown with authorities that they say will only end when the university cuts ties with Israeli institutions.
The protests have caught global attention as Israel appears to be entering the next phase of its war in Gaza, with speculation that it may soon launch a military operation against Rafah, despite the US and others speaking out against the operation.
Tensions are also high in the occupied West Bank and on the Israeli-Lebanese border, where fighting against the militant group Hezbollah has intensified.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke against the protests on Wednesday, as he sought to rally opinion.
The demonstrations are “reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s”, Mr Netanyahu said in a television address.
“Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities. They call for the annihilation of Israel, they attack Jewish students, they attack Jewish faculty,” he said.
“When you listen to [the protesters], they say not only ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to the Jews', but also ‘Death to America'.”
Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli wrote on X that the movement is a “pandemic spreading on American campuses … not so different and not less dangerous than the fentanyl epidemic”.
“Mass protests act like a drug, an immediate response to social isolation and the absence of meaning. This is what most of the young people participating in these protests are seeking; most of them have no clue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he added.
The comments by Israeli ministers come amid unprecedented tension between Israel and the US government.
The administration of US President Joe Biden has grown increasingly concerned over the humanitarian toll of the military operations in Gaza and is reportedly angered that the Israeli government appears to have repeatedly ignored American warnings against escalating the conflict and tipping the region into a wider war.
Mr Biden also criticised Israel for the killing of aid workers in Gaza last month and has warned that an offensive on Rafah could deepen the humanitarian catastrophe in the enclave.
Despite the fractured relationship between Mr Biden and Mr Netanyahu, the US passed a spending package this week that will give Israel $17 billion in military aid.
The move has been slammed by many in the US and abroad who say the Biden administration should withhold military aid to force Israel to change its conduct during the war.
Pro-Palestinian Jewish groups staged a sit in outside New York Senator Chuck Schumer's house to protest against the spending package this week. The words "Stop Arming Israel" were also projected onto Brooklyn Public Library in New York, close to Senator Schumer's house.
Within Israel, opposition politicians have presented different views on the US campus protests.
“What’s happening on American college campuses is unforgivable,” wrote opposition leader Yair Lapid on X.
“It is anti-Semitism, it is support for terrorism, it is support for Hamas which murders LGBT people and oppresses women. The administration cannot stand by, it has to intervene.”
However, the left-wing Israeli opposition member Offer Cassif shared a video of students at the protest at Columbia, including Jewish students, holding a joint Passover Seder.
“This wonderful event happens at no place other than Columbia University, which in recent days has been libelled in the Israeli media as the stronghold of campus anti-Semitism in the US,” he said in a post on X.
“This is the definitive proof that opposition to successive Israeli governments' abominable policies towards the Palestinians is not anti-Semitism, and that when there is no proper argument against the protesters, opponents resort to slander and lies.”
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
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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