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Israeli authorities will cut off water and electricity supplies to offices used by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and seize the site by force if it does not follow a government order to leave the East Jerusalem premises, the Israeli deputy mayor of Jerusalem told The National.
“If they will not leave, as the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, I will call our water company and tell them to shut off the water, we will not supply them with electricity and we will not collect their rubbish,” Aryeh King said. “We will start to enter the property and try to enter with helicopters.”
An UNRWA official told The National that the agency was in contact with donor nations to urge Israel to reverse a decision to seize its offices in Jerusalem.
‘We are mobilising our donors and partners to go back to Israel and tell them that this in violation of UN privileges and the vote on UNRWA’s mandate," said Tamara Alrifai, director of external relations and communications at the agency.
The Israel Land Authority and Housing Ministry last week ordered UNRWA to leave its premises in the Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem. Rights groups described the move as a continuation of the illegal annexation of the eastern part of the city and a campaign to disrupt the work of the UN.
Mr King said the plan was to turn the site into about 1,400 housing units in a “Jewish neighbourhood” in the area, without providing a timetable. “This land belongs to the Israeli government,” he claimed.
Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, a move it formalised in a 1980 law. The UN and rights groups have long considered the annexation to be a breach international law. In July this year, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was unlawful.
Mr King shared plans and sketches with The National that showed high-rise and low-rise apartment blocks arranged in a triangular formation around a central garden on what is currently the UNRWA site, which spans about 1,000 square metres. He is the founder of the Israel Land Fund, a prominent settler organisation.
The intention to build a settlement on the UNRWA site is in “direct contradiction” of international laws that state that an occupying power must not transfer its population into occupied territory, or force the current residents out of the area, said Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at rights organisation Ir Amim, which monitors settlement construction in East Jerusalem.
“The crux of the issue is that, after illegally annexing East Jerusalem, the Israeli government refuses to consider international law in regards to what it does there,” he told The National.
Another UNRWA official told The National that the agency did not receive formal notification of the seizure and only found out from Israeli media reports. “UNRWA has not received anything in writing about this matter from the Israeli authorities,” said Juliette Touma, UNRWA director of communications.
The agency is mandated by a UN vote to provide services for Palestinian refugees in Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. It has been operating since 1950, after the state of Israel was created and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes.
Israel has long accused UNRWA of anti-Semitism and stoking anti-Israel sentiment, accusations the organisation denies. Efforts by the government and activists to force UNRWA out of Israel and Palestine intensified after Israeli officials accused some employees of the agency of taking part in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, when 1,200 people were killed.
A UN inquiry found that nine employees “may have been involved” in the attacks, but said any evidence needed to be authenticated and corroborated. Several donor nations suspended funding to UNRWA over the allegations, although most later reinstated transfers. The October 7 attack led to the war on Gaza, which has killed more than 42,200 Palestinians, the enclave's health authorities said.
The UNRWA site in Jerusalem, surrounded by pine trees and broken wire fencing, was quiet when The National visited on Monday, with vehicles entering and exiting through the gates. In recent weeks, Israeli groups demanding UNRWA’s removal have held protests at the site.
Rafael Shaouli, 63, lives opposite the complex and said he agreed with the Israeli plan to seize the site. “UNRWA is not good and should leave this place,” he told The National, referring to the alleged involvement of some staff in the October 7 attacks.
The Israeli right is increasingly focused on UNRWA, making it more difficult for the agency to do its work, Mr Tatarsky said. “Targeting UNRWA is a specific campaign that is getting stronger and stronger by Israeli right-wing politicians," he added. "They have all kinds of reasons for doing it, but any organisation that supports Palestinians and somehow allows them to withstand Israeli policies becomes a target of the Israeli government.”
Israeli politicians are also examining two draft laws that would essentially make it impossible for UNRWA to work in Israel, and by extension the occupied Palestinian territories. A vote on the bills is expected to be held in the Knesset before the end of the month in the Knesset. If passed, the first would ban Israeli state authorities from having any contact with UNRWA, while the second would effectively stop the agency from operating in Israeli territory by revoking a 1967 exchange of notes providing the basis for its activities, the Times of Israel reported.
The US envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Washington was "following with deep concern the Israeli legislative proposal that could alter UNRWA's legal status". She said the move risked "hindering its ability to communicate with Israeli officials and removing privileges and immunities afforded to UN organisations and personnel around the globe", AFP reported.
If the bills are passed, they breach Israel’s obligations under the UN Charter and "deepen the violations in the ICJ opinion on the unlawful nature of the Israeli occupation", Ms Alrifai said.
“We are extremely concerned about the impact on education for children, people who receive health care in UNRWA clinics, and such bills are worded that they would hinder services in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
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.”
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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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
