A mainly young crowd of 1,500 people in Amman on Tuesday denounced Israel over its crackdown in Jerusalem, as authorities sought to handle the possible effects of the escalation in Palestine on Jordan.
"Allah salutes Sheikh Jarrah. We die and Palestine remains,” some among the crowd of men and women chanted in the upper-end Rabieh district of the city.
Israeli eviction orders against Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem sparked violence that turned deadly this week, and the threat of another war between Israel and militants in Gaza.
It also threatens a balance Jordan has maintained between established ties with Israel and catering to a population comprising many people of Palestinian origin.
The demonstration in Rabieh, near the Israeli embassy, is in line with a long-standing government approach to let people in Jordan vent their anger every time Israel raises pressure on the Palestinians.
Jordanian authorities allowed several anti-Israeli protests in Amman this week, despite a coronavirus ban on gatherings.
They cracked down on protests demanding the down fall of the government across Jordan in March. The protests followed the deaths of seven coronavirus patients at a public hospital that ran out of oxygen.
Daily pro-Palestinian gatherings at Rabieh started three days ago.
Security troops ring the crowds and have used armoured vehicles in Rabieh to block access to the Israeli embassy and surrounds.
“No peace, no embassy, no ambassador,” people chanted on Tuesday, in reference to the 1994 Wadi Araba peace treaty between Jordan and Israel.
Some chanted slogans glorifying the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who fired ballistic missiles on Israel during the Gulf War in 1990 to 1991.
Rashed, a Jordanian university student, said the reference to Saddam was anachronistic. He was wearing a black T-shirt with the word "Palestine" in white Arabic letters.
“Invoking Saddam does not serve the cause," said Rashed, whose family fled to Jordan from the Jenin Woods in the occupied West Bank in the 1960s.
A large proportion of Jordan’s 10 million inhabitants are refugees who fled their homes in Palestine in 1948 and 1967, and their descendants.
In the past few days, Palestinian outrage over the Sheikh Jarrah evictions ended in protests at Al Aqsa Mosque complex, one of the most important sites in Islam, and a crackdown by Israel.
The violence widened after Hamas attacked Israel with rockets and Israel struck Gaza . At least 35 people, mostly Palestinians, were killed.
Jordanian authorities regard Israeli pressure on the Palestinians in the past decade as a threat to Jordan's cohesion, as it could cause another mass migration of refugees.
Jordan's economy is in recession and the political system is partly tied to balances between tribes that underpin support for the monarchy.
The authorities have not made any move to downgrade relations with Israel over the eviction orders in Sheikh Jarrah.
But the kingdom has launched a diplomatic campaign to counter the Israeli moves in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians, and Jordan, regard as indispensable to any future Palestinian state on land occupied by Israel in 1967.
King Abdullah of Jordan sent his Foreign Minister, Ayman Al Safadi, to Washington this week.
The king set aside differences with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the Jerusalem issue on Monday.
The two men agreed on the need to “continue to co-ordinate closely to put a limit to the Israeli aggression in East Jerusalem", the official Jordanian news agency said
The Israeli Supreme Court is due to hear a Palestinian appeal against the Sheikh Jarrah evictions in the next 30 days, after the state attorney general requested a hearing that was due on Monday be postponed.
At a meeting of the Arab League on Tuesday, Mr Al Safadi said that Israel would be committing a war crime if it evicted Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah.
Mr Al Safadi said that the "Palestinian citizens in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied Jerusalem have a clear right to their homes."
"Depriving them from this right would be a war crime that the international community must stop," he said. "Israel is playing with fire.”
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah 5.10pm: Continous 5.45pm: Raging Torrent 6.20pm: West Acre 7pm: Flood Zone 7.40pm: Straight No Chaser 8.15pm: Romantic Warrior 8.50pm: Calandogan 9.30pm: Forever Young
What should do investors do now?
What does the S&P 500's new all-time high mean for the average investor?
Should I be euphoric?
No. It's fine to be pleased about hearty returns on your investments. But it's not a good idea to tie your emotions closely to the ups and downs of the stock market. You'll get tired fast. This market moment comes on the heels of last year's nosedive. And it's not the first or last time the stock market will make a dramatic move.
So what happened?
It's more about what happened last year. Many of the concerns that triggered that plunge towards the end of last have largely been quelled. The US and China are slowly moving toward a trade agreement. The Federal Reserve has indicated it likely will not raise rates at all in 2019 after seven recent increases. And those changes, along with some strong earnings reports and broader healthy economic indicators, have fueled some optimism in stock markets.
"The panic in the fourth quarter was based mostly on fears," says Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist for Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company. "The fundamentals have mostly held up, while the fears have gone away and the fears were based mostly on emotion."
Should I buy? Should I sell?
Maybe. It depends on what your long-term investment plan is. The best advice is usually the same no matter the day — determine your financial goals, make a plan to reach them and stick to it.
"I would encourage (investors) not to overreact to highs, just as I would encourage them not to overreact to the lows of December," Mr Schutte says.
All the same, there are some situations in which you should consider taking action. If you think you can't live through another low like last year, the time to get out is now. If the balance of assets in your portfolio is out of whack thanks to the rise of the stock market, make adjustments. And if you need your money in the next five to 10 years, it shouldn't be in stocks anyhow. But for most people, it's also a good time to just leave things be.
Resist the urge to abandon the diversification of your portfolio, Mr Schutte cautions. It may be tempting to shed other investments that aren't performing as well, such as some international stocks, but diversification is designed to help steady your performance over time.
Will the rally last?
No one knows for sure. But David Bailin, chief investment officer at Citi Private Bank, expects the US market could move up 5 per cent to 7 per cent more over the next nine to 12 months, provided the Fed doesn't raise rates and earnings growth exceeds current expectations. We are in a late cycle market, a period when US equities have historically done very well, but volatility also rises, he says.
"This phase can last six months to several years, but it's important clients remain invested and not try to prematurely position for a contraction of the market," Mr Bailin says. "Doing so would risk missing out on important portfolio returns."
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
Red flags
Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
