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Israel carried out “genocidal” acts in Gaza with the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare centres during its war against Hamas, a UN investigation concluded on Thursday.
Forces “simultaneously imposed a siege and prevented humanitarian assistance, including the provision of necessary medication and equipment to ensure safe pregnancies, deliveries and post-partum and neonatal care”, the UN Commission of Inquiry said in a report.
“Israel has increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians as part of a broader effort to undermine their right to self-determination and carried out genocidal acts through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities,” it said.
The commission said such acts violate women’s and girls’ reproductive rights, as well as their right to life, health, human dignity, physical and mental integrity, freedom from torture and degrading treatment.
The report came after the commission conducted public hearings in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday, hearing from victims and witnesses of sexual violence.
The commission said it found that Israeli authorities have partly destroyed the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza by attacking sexual and reproductive health care.
It said that this amounts to “two categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention, including deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians and imposing measures intended to prevent births”.
“The targeting of reproductive healthcare facilities, including through direct attacks on maternity wards and Gaza’s main in-vitro fertility clinic, combined with the use of starvation as a method of war, has impacted all aspects of reproduction,” said the commission's chair Navi Pillay.
“These violations have not only caused severe immediate physical and mental harm and suffering to women and girls, but irreversible long-term effects on the mental health and reproductive and fertility prospects of Palestinians as a group.”
Hamas, which led the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the war in Gaza, said the commission's report "highlighted the state of disregard and negligence that the international community has demonstrated in response to the crimes and violations committed against the Palestinians, which all require a serious position to be taken by the whole world and the UN".
"We call on the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, alongside all international and national judicial bodies around the world, to seriously follow up the findings of this report, in addition to all previous UN reports documenting the occupation’s crimes and violations, and prosecute the occupation’s leaders as war criminals," it said.
The three-person Independent International Commission of Inquiry was established by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in May 2021 to investigate alleged international law violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Israel's mission in Geneva said it “categorically rejects the unfounded allegations”. It accused the commission of advancing a “predetermined and biased political agenda … in a shameless attempt to incriminate the Israel Defence Forces”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the UNHRC as an "anti-Israel circus" after the publication of the report. "Instead of focusing on the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organisation in the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, the UN is once again choosing to attack the state of Israel with false accusations, including unfounded accusations of sexual violence," he said. "This is not the Human Rights Council – this is the 'Blood Rights Council'."
Benny Gantz, a leading Israeli opposition politician and former army chief, wrote on X that the report was "not only deceitfully false but a disgraceful new low in the moral depravity of the UN".
The UN Population Fund estimates at least 50,000 pregnant women were caught up in the Gaza conflict, cut off from maternity care and delivery services. In September, it reported that more than 17,000 pregnant women were on the brink of famine, with nearly 11,000 experiencing severe food shortages.
In February, doctors told the fund's representative Nestor Owomuhangi of the harrowing details of women facing miscarriages as a result of the long and arduous journeys on foot, travelling on broken roads in the wind and rain. About 500,000 returned to Gaza's north after a ceasefire deal took effect in January, many to homes that had been destroyed.
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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.”
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
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The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
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