Israel on Tuesday said it was suspending more than two dozen humanitarian organisations, including Doctors Without Borders and Care, from operating in the Gaza Strip for failing to comply with new registration rules.
Israel says the rules are aimed at preventing Hamas and other militant groups from infiltrating the aid organisations. But the groups say the rules are arbitrary and that the new ban would harm a civilian population desperately in need of humanitarian aid.
Israel has claimed throughout the war in Gaza that Hamas was siphoning off relief supplies, a charge the UN and aid groups have denied. The new rules, announced by Israel in March, require aid groups to register the names of their workers and provide details about funding and operations.
The regulations also disqualify organisations that have called for boycotts against Israel, denied the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, that led to the war, or expressed support for any of the international court cases against Israeli soldiers or leaders.
Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said more than 30 groups had failed to comply and that their operations would be suspended. It said that Doctors Without Borders had failed to respond to claims that some of its workers were affiliated with Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
“The message is clear: humanitarian assistance is welcome – the exploitation of humanitarian frameworks for terrorism is not,” Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli said.
Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF, denied the accusations against its staff and said Israel's decision would have a catastrophic effect on its work in Gaza, where it supports about 20 per cent of the hospital beds and a third of births.
“MSF would never knowingly employ people engaging in military activity,” it said.
While Israel claimed the decision would have limited impact in Gaza, the affected organisations said the timing – less than three months into a fragile ceasefire – was devastating.
“Despite the ceasefire, the needs in Gaza are enormous and yet we and dozens of other organisations are and will continue to be blocked from bringing in essential, life-saving assistance,” said Shaina Low, communications adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which has also been suspended.
“Not being able to send staff into Gaza means all of the workload falls on our exhausted local staff."
Some aid groups say they did not submit the list of Palestinian staff, as Israel demanded, for fear they would be a target for Israel, and because of data protection laws in Europe.
“It comes from a legal and safety perspective. In Gaza, we saw hundreds of aid workers get killed,” Ms Low said.
The decision not to renew aid groups’ licences means offices in Israel and East Jerusalem will close, and organisations will not be able to send international staff or aid into Gaza.
Israel's announcement came as foreign ministers of 10 nations expressed "serious concerns" about a "renewed deterioration of the humanitarian situation" in Gaza, saying the situation was "catastrophic".
"As winter draws in, civilians in Gaza are facing appalling conditions with heavy rainfall and temperatures dropping," the ministers of Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland said in a joint statement released by the UK's Foreign Office.
"1.3 million people still require urgent shelter support. More than half of health facilities are only partially functional and face shortages of essential medical equipment and supplies. The total collapse of sanitation infrastructure has left 740,000 people vulnerable to toxic flooding."
The foreign ministers said they welcomed the progress that had been made to end the bloodshed in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages.
"However, we will not lose focus on the plight of civilians in Gaza," they said, calling on the government of Israel to take a string of "urgent and essential" steps.
These included ensuring that international NGOs could operate in Gaza in a "sustained and predictable" way.
"As December 31 approaches, many established international NGO partners are at risk of being deregistered because of the government of Israel's restrictive new requirements," the statement said.
It also called for the UN and its partners to be able to continue their work in Gaza and to life "unreasonable restrictions on imports considered to have a dual use".
With reporting from agencies
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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