Members of the Palestinian national women's team expressed their pride at playing football in front of artwork featuring the Irish and Palestinian flags at Dalymount Park stadium in Dublin on Nakba Day.
“Walking through the pitch and seeing our flag here, it feels like home," said Palestinian-German player Nadine Mohamad, 20, before the team's match against local Irish football club the Bohemians Women.
"Ireland is a European country which supports us and I think will join Spain and Malta and Slovenia and recognise Palestine soon, so we are so excited about what's going to happen in the future.
"This is the most special moment we’ve ever had."
Mohamad, who travelled from Berlin where she plays for local club Turkiyemspor, said German authorities are restricting pro-Palestine and anti-war protests and trying to deny what is happening in Gaza.
“When you see a kid who's five years old looking for his mom or dad who's buried under the rubble of their house, how do you ignore it?” she asked.
Jihad, one of the Palestinians organising the trip, said the match at Dalymount Park was about reminding the world that Palestinians do not want to die in Gaza.
“They have hopes and dreams too,” he said. “We want people to see Palestinians playing football – not just dying in war.”
George Dabit travelled to Dublin from Canada to support his granddaughter, Charlotte Phillips, who plays in the goal for the Palestinian national team.
Born in Jaffa in 1945, Mr Dabit and his family were forced to flee their home during the 1948 Nakba, or "catastrophe", after the formation of Israel .
His family lived in Jordan before returning to East Jerusalem where he met Phillips’s grandmother, Odette.
“It’s only in the last two and half years that I’ve been able to talk about what happened to my family during the Nakba,” Mrs Dabit said.
Her family had planned to flee from their home in the city of Ramla in 1948 but after her eldest brother Zachary, who was 18, died from a gunshot wound inflicted by a Jewish militia her mother refused to leave.
“She said 'over my dead body are we leaving the land where my son is buried',” Mrs Dabit said.
Just a few years later in 1956, Mrs Dabit saw her father, who was a Catholic Palestinian, being killed in an axe attack after he refused to sell his popular restaurant in Ramla to a group of Jewish Iraqis who had moved into the neighbourhood.
“He died on my sister’s knee,” she recalls emotionally.
Various members of Mrs Dabit's family emigrated to Canada before she and husband George decided to emigrate too, in 1968.
The couple had been living in Beit Hanina, a neighbourhood near Jerusalem which was occupied by Israel after the 1967 war.
“Canada gave us a country and a flag and treated us like everyone else,” Mrs Dabit said.
“I didn’t want my kids to know about politics. I wanted to give them a fresh start, but I can’t deny who I am.”
The Dabits are proud to see their granddaughter play for Palestine.
“Charlotte’s so passionate about playing with the team,” Mrs Dabit said.
But she worries whether playing for a Palestinian team could hurt her granddaughter’s future, with the current climate on university campuses and in workplaces.
Speaking before Wednesday night's match, Phillips said that she was excited to represent Palestine in front of her family and that the players are always trying to do their best.
“It’s very competitive, no one wants to be replaced,” she said.
The friendly game marks the first time the Palestinian women’s team has played a match in Europe and coincides with the annual Nakba Day.
Bohemian defender Abbie O’Hara said the Irish team had been looking forward to the match since they heard it had been organised with the Palestinian Football Association this year.
“We’re all just really excited to play,” said O’Hara.
The Bohemian Football Club has previously raised funds for sports programmes for Palestinian children living in the Tulkarm camp in the occupied West Bank.
Proceeds from this match will support the cost of the team travelling to Ireland, as well as the work of charitable organisations including Palestine Sport for Life, Medical Aid for Palestinians and Aclaí Palestine.
Palestinian players facing the Bohemian women’s team in the sold-out match travelled this week from the West Bank through Jordan, and from Israel, Lebanon, Germany, Sweden, the US and Canada.
Bisan Abuaita, 26, who normally plays right-wing for the Palestinian team, travelled from Bethlehem.
Abuaita said the team has never had players from Gaza, as even before the war began it was too difficult for them to travel for matches because of the total blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt.
The team last played in Jeddah in a friendly game against the Saudi Arabian women’s team in May 2023.
Before the match, a delegation from the Palestinian team was hosted at Aras an Uachtarain on Tuesday by Irish President Michael Higgins, and at the Mansion House by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daithi de Roiste.
Mr Higgins and Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald attended the football match on Wednesday evening.
A Palestinian flag was placed on every seat in the ground and shortly before kick-off, a mural of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza, was unveiled outside the ground.
Fans who were not able to buy a ticket were encouraged to purchase a stream of the game or a non-attendance ticket, or to make a donation online.
The Palestinian team scored a last-minute goal, taking them to a 2-1 win against The Bohemians.
HEADLINE HERE
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- That's about it
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PROFILE BOX
Company name: Overwrite.ai
Founder: Ayman Alashkar
Started: Established in 2020
Based: Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai
Sector: PropTech
Initial investment: Self-funded by founder
Funding stage: Seed funding, in talks with angel investors
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
RESULT
Bayer Leverkusen 2 Bayern Munich 4
Leverkusen: Alario (9'), Wirtz (89')
Bayern: Coman (27'), Goretzka (42'), Gnabry (45'), Lewandowski (66')
School counsellors on mental well-being
Schools counsellors in Abu Dhabi have put a number of provisions in place to help support pupils returning to the classroom next week.
Many children will resume in-person lessons for the first time in 10 months and parents previously raised concerns about the long-term effects of distance learning.
Schools leaders and counsellors said extra support will be offered to anyone that needs it. Additionally, heads of years will be on hand to offer advice or coping mechanisms to ease any concerns.
“Anxiety this time round has really spiralled, more so than from the first lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic,” said Priya Mitchell, counsellor at The British School Al Khubairat in Abu Dhabi.
“Some have got used to being at home don’t want to go back, while others are desperate to get back.
“We have seen an increase in depressive symptoms, especially with older pupils, and self-harm is starting younger.
“It is worrying and has taught us how important it is that we prioritise mental well-being.”
Ms Mitchell said she was liaising more with heads of year so they can support and offer advice to pupils if the demand is there.
The school will also carry out mental well-being checks so they can pick up on any behavioural patterns and put interventions in place to help pupils.
At Raha International School, the well-being team has provided parents with assessment surveys to see how they can support students at home to transition back to school.
“They have created a Well-being Resource Bank that parents have access to on information on various domains of mental health for students and families,” a team member said.
“Our pastoral team have been working with students to help ease the transition and reduce anxiety that [pupils] may experience after some have been nearly a year off campus.
"Special secondary tutorial classes have also focused on preparing students for their return; going over new guidelines, expectations and daily schedules.”
Brief scoreline:
Al Wahda 2
Al Menhali 27', Tagliabue 79'
Al Nassr 3
Hamdallah 41', Giuliano 45 1', 62'
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UFC Fight Night 2
1am – Early prelims
2am – Prelims
4am-7am – Main card
7:30am-9am – press cons
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.”
Notable cricketers and political careers
- India: Kirti Azad, Navjot Sidhu and Gautam Gambhir (rumoured)
- Pakistan: Imran Khan and Shahid Afridi (rumoured)
- Sri Lanka: Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan (rumoured)
- Bangladesh (Mashrafe Mortaza)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
