JERUSALEM // A number of Palestinians imprisoned for attacking Israelis are to be released as part of a deal brokered between Israel and Hamas, a television station affiliated with the Islamist group reported.
Among the 1,027 Palestinians to be set free are a number of prisoners who carried out attacks on Israelis, ranging from kidnappings to suicide bombings, which killed scores of people, according to an unofficial list published on Al Aqsa TV's website.
As part of the deal, Hamas will release Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who has become a national icon for being held captive by Hamas for five years. He is expected to be set free on Tuesday in return for a phased release of Palestinian prisoners.
"If everything goes smoothly, on Tuesday he will be home," Tami Shienkman, an Israeli military spokesperson, told the Associated Press.
While many Israelis were pleased at the news of Mr Shalit's release, his impending freedom has stirred concern among some Israelis. They worry that Palestinians from a range of militant groups involved in numerous violent attacks will be set free. Some 300 are serving life sentences.
Among those appearing on Al Aqsa TV's list is Husam Badran, a Hamas leader jailed over a number of attacks on Israelis during the second intifada, including the 2001 suicide bombing of the Dolphinarium nightclub in Tel Aviv. That attack killed 21 people. Another is Mohammad Duglas, who is serving 15 life sentences. One of his convictions included involvement a 2001 suicide attack on a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem that killed 15 people and wounded dozens more.
Hamas' prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, touted their release as a victory. "If God is willing, we have an appointment with a great Palestinian national wedding, a historical moment, this coming Tuesday," he said yesterday. Israel reportedly plans to set free 27 female prisoners on Tuesday after Hamas releases Mr Shalit into Egypt. Another 450 will then be released once Mr Shalit arrives in Israel, with the remainder of prisoners being let out over the next two months.
An official list of names is expected to be published in the coming days, but as many as 550 members of Hamas' rival faction, Fatah, are also on it, according to an Egyptian diplomat who helped broker the accord.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the diplomat said Cairo persuaded Israel to release "550 prisoners from Fatah" who will be handed to the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, who also serves as Fatah's chairman after two months.
Even so, Palestinians criticised Hamas for making too many compromises in the deal, in which 205 of the released prisoners will not be allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank. Of that number, 163 will be sent to Gaza and 42 will be deported to undisclosed destinations.
"We were very much disappointed that some of them will be transferred to Gaza and will not stay with their families in the West Bank, and other parties will also be deported outside," Riyad Al Malki, the Palestinian Authority foreign minister, told France 24 on Thursday.
Tensions over the deal appeared to rise inside Israel, too. A man yesterday defaced a memorial to the assassinated Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, apparently in protest to the agreement.
The Israeli media identified the suspect as Shvuel Schijveschuurder, 27, who allegedly spray-painted right-wing slogans on the Tel Aviv memorial. The Israeli architect of the 1993 Oslo Accords was shot dead at the site during a peace rally in 1995.
The vandalism has raised concern that the prisoner deal could further inflame ultranationalist Jewish sentiment in Israel, which is believed to be behind a recent spate of attacks on Palestinian communities and symbols.
Suspected Jewish nationalists desecrated Muslim and Christian graves in the Tel Aviv suburb of Jaffa last week and torched a mosque a week before in the northern Israeli village of Tuba-Zangaria.
Mr Rabin's memorial was tagged with right-wing slogans and a plea for the release of his assassin, Yigal Amir, an ultranationalist Israeli who is serving a life sentence.
While police did not identify Mr Schijveschuurder as the suspect, Luba Samri, a police spokesperson, confirmed that a man had been briefly detained after the vandalism incident and was barred from entering Tel Aviv for two weeks. She said he suffered "mental health issues".
Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported that family members of Mr Schijveschuurder were killed in the suicide bombing on Sbarro pizzeria in 2001.
Mr Schijveschuurder demonstrated two years ago in front of a tent set up by Mr Shalit's family in Jerusalem to protest the release of Palestinians who were jailed for attacking Israelis, Haaretz reported.
hnaylor@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
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In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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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.”
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But what are described as "high-contributing" individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.
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