A Palestinian rights activist who advocates one democratic state in Israel-Palestine has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a winner recognised for her campaign in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
Prof Mazin Qumsiyeh is a scientist based in the occupied West Bank, whose work ranges from treating cancer to protecting Palestine's natural heritage. He lived for more than two decades in the US, where he held a professorship in genetics at Yale and Duke universities, and advocated non-violent resistance to Israeli occupation and apartheid.
In the early 2000s and until 2006, he led a bus tour of US colleges, schools, mosques and churches to call for an end of the occupations of Palestine and Iraq. “In my view the way to solve this problem is through a simple one word thing: justice. If you have justice, and you allow refugees to return, you bring peace. It happens everywhere in the world,” he said during a tour.
Upon returning to Bethlehem in 2008, he established a genetics laboratory to treat cancer patients. He was arrested twice by Israeli forces, once for protesting the destruction of farmland by an Israeli bulldozer in Al Walaja, a village outside Bethlehem in 2010, and during Nakba day protests the following year.
He and his wife founded two educational institutions dedicated to nature conservation in Bethlehem: the Palestine Museum of Natural History opened officially in 2017, and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University, was established in 2014 with a $250,000 donation from the couple.
Prof Qumsiyeh has called for one democratic state where Jews and Palestinians live together with equal rights, and which draws on the South African post-apartheid model. He outlined his vision for this in book Sharing the Canaanite Land (Pluto, 2008), and co-wrote a Declaration for a One-State Solution with academics including Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in 2007.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire, whose peace activism in Northern Ireland won her the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize nominated Prof Qumsiyah this week, praising the “enduring legacy” of the Wheels of Justice tour.
The nomination comes after criticism that last year’s award had not been given to those calling for an end to Israel's military campaign in Gaza.
Toshiyuki Mimaki, a member of the grass roots movement of atom bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki that was awarded the 2023 peace prize last October, said he’d thought “those fighting hard for peace in Gaza would deserve it”. He said “the images of children in Gaza covered with blood held by their parents” reminded him of Japan during WWII and in the aftermath of the bomb.
Heads of state, cabinet ministers, international jurists, university professors and Laureates are among those who can nominate a person for the prize. But the selection process itself is shrouded in secrecy, despite the annual public speculation about who could win.
Ms Maguire became a laureate in 1976 for bringing together thousands of Protestant and Catholic women in Northern Ireland together to march for peace, after three of her sister’s children were killed. “I have great pleasure in nominating Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh for the 2025 Nobel peace prize. I have met professor Mazin and have followed his inspiring peace work for many decades,” she wrote.
Long record
While in the US in the 1980s and 1990s, he was involved in several civic rights organisations including the leadership committee of the Palestinian American Congress.
He co-founded the Triangle Middle East Dialogue and the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, which advocates for Palestinian return. He organised some of Washington DC’s largest demonstrations for the Palestinian cause, drawing in thousands – numbers only surpassed last year in response to the current Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
He was awarded the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee’s Raymond Jallow award in 1997, and the University of Alabama’s Peace and Justice Studies Award in 2011. He won the Takreem Award for Sustainability and Environmental Leadership in 2020.
He lectures at the universities of Bir Zeit in Ramallah and Bethlehem, and is a regular speaker on environmental issues and biodiversity conservation in Palestine.
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Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
A list of the animal rescue organisations in the UAE
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2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
THREE
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Three stars
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.”
