Jerusalem // Israeli forces on Monday destroyed the East Jerusalem homes of two Palestinians who killed four Israelis on one of the deadliest days in the recent surge in violence.
In the neighbourhood of Jabel Mukaber, the home of Alaa Abu Jamal was filled with concrete and sealed off.
Abu Jamal had on October 13 rammed his car into people at a Jerusalem bus stop and jumped out with a knife, stabbing a rabbi to death before being shot dead.
He was a cousin of two Palestinians who in November stormed a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighbourhood with meat cleavers and a pistol, killing five Jewish worshippers and a policeman before being shot dead.
In another part of Jabel Mukaber, Israeli forces used jackhammers to destroy the walls of Bahaa Allyan’s home, the middle floor of a three-storey building.
Allyan and another Palestinian, Bilal Ghanem, had on October 13 shot and stabbed passengers on a bus in Jerusalem, killing two Israelis and a US-Israeli dual national.
Allyan was shot dead while Ghanem was arrested.
Hundreds of Israeli police and soldiers were on site for the home destructions, which took place without incident after residents were cleared from the area.
“I don’t have any other place to live,” Allyan’s father Mohammed said.
“The army just said ‘we are going to destroy the house, get out’ – this measure punishes a father, a mother, a brother, a sister and [four] children” who were living in the house, he said.
At least 142 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis since October 1, according to the Palestian news agency Maan. Israeli forces claim that many of those killed were attempting to carry out attacks but this has been disputed by Palestinians and rights groups.
In the same period, 22 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean have been killed in a wave of Palestinian attacks including stabbings, car rammings and gunfire targeting security forces and civilians.
In the latest violence, two Israeli soldiers, one a woman, were wounded on Sunday in separate shootings in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, the army said.
The young woman was seriously wounded when an unidentified gunman fired at her and she was taken to Jerusalem’s Shaare Tzedek hospital, the army said.
The shooting happened near a disputed holy site in the heart of Hebron’s Old City, which is known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Three hours later, another gunman opened fire on an army patrol in southern Hebron, slightly wounding a soldier, the army said, adding that the unknown assailant fled after the attack.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November vowed to expedite punitive house demolitions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which he said were “one of the most efficient tools” in discouraging Palestinian attacks.
The controversial practice is widely used in the West Bank and resumed in East Jerusalem in November after a five-year hiatus.
According to the United Nations, 19 homes of families and neighbours of Palestinian attackers were destroyed by Israel last year.
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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.”
