Gaza: the choice of life in an open-air prison or being shot is no choice

The Arab-British satirist Karl Sharro often makes pithy political observations on Twitter. One of his most recent ones was fairly simple – and undercut with a poignant truth: “Israel has given Palestinians a choice: accept the humiliation of life in an open-air prison or we shoot you. Go on, make that choice.”

Sharro has a point. A broader point is this: the "international community", whatever that phrase still means, allows for that choice to be made – and makes little or no effort to change it. On the contrary, the "choice" becomes more stark every day, as the recent killings in Gaza have shown.

Let us be clear: the deaths of Palestinian protesters in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli military are hardly the only abhorrent occurrence that has taken place in the region over the past week. The actions of the Syrian regime in Yarmouk, for example, are especially detestable and they have received a paltry amount of attention, which is disgraceful. And certainly, it does not appear that the "international community" cares about that arena of suffering – a grotesque arena to be sure – very much at all.

What is striking, nevertheless, about the killings in Gaza is how much discussion there was in the western media on the Palestinian question – and how indescribably nauseating so much of that discussion was. Day after day, piece after piece, especially in the US press, we were bombarded by critiques, not of those shooting unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza but of those being shot.

The very genuine and real problem of a lack of Palestinian leadership and the appalling conduct of the Hamas organisation were taken as clubs with which to beat Palestinians en masse over the head. Such critiques forget that it is Palestinians themselves who already suffer from the lack of genuine leadership and it is Palestinians themselves who suffer from Hamas more than anyone else.

But most fundamental of all is the truth that such critiques generally miss the larger frame within which the conflict exists. That frame is rather simple: it is called the occupation of Palestinians for a reason, because Palestinians are occupied and under siege by the Israeli military. Not the other way round.

It’s important to be clear about that because the way the discussion was unfolding in the past few weeks, one could be mistaken for thinking Palestinians were occupying Israeli territory and laying siege to Israelis.

It's clear that is nonsense. Not a single Israeli died as a result of the events of last week but more than 60 Palestinians perished under Israeli fire. But this is the nature of so much of the discussion around the occupation. Simply being clear that this is not some kind of battle between more or less equal opponents but a violent occupation and siege of one party by an overwhelmingly powerful actor seems to be too controversial to declare outright in much of the policy establishment in the West today.

On the contrary: rather than ask the basic question of how we can continue to allow the continuous dehumanisation and repression of a people for so many decades, we revoltingly ask instead why Palestinians "killed themselves for public relations purposes".

Now, in much of the world, the predicament of the Palestinians remains one that occupies a lot of attention, and rightly so. But here is the honest truth: they are on their own. Against the backdrop of a veritable laundry list of crises in the world, the Palestinian question, alas, is hardly a top priority.

Indeed, they have been a subject of conversation more often in the past few weeks for one reason alone: the Trump administration made things worse following the disastrous declaration surrounding the moving of the American embassy to Jerusalem.

Had that announcement not been made, the situation of the Palestinians would have still been awful and repugnant – because the siege and the occupation would have remained – but we wouldn’t be talking about it. Because, again, the laundry list of crises in the region in particular, and the world more generally, has left the Palestinians too far behind.

Is it thus inevitable that this be the case indefinitely? Not at all, because these are all the repercussions of choices made by those Tel Aviv continues to rely on for commercial and military support.

But change requires them to see Palestinians as fully fledged human beings that deserve the chance to live in freedom and dignity. What Palestinians get instead is lip service and rhetoric – and unfortunately, they might even cease to get that, as their future becomes sacrificed on the altar of some geostrategic game with different adversaries.

If and when that happens, we all should then remind ourselves – we had a choice and we consciously made the wrong one. We should at least be honest about that.

Dr HA Hellyer is a senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC and the Royal United Services Institute in London

SPECS

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Brief scores:

Manchester City 3

Bernardo Silva 16', Sterling 57', Gundogan 79'

Bournemouth 1

Wilson 44'

Man of the match: Leroy Sane (Manchester City)

SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)

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Paatal Lok season two

Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

Rating: 4.5/5

On Women's Day

Dr Nawal Al-Hosany: Why more women should be on the frontlines of climate action

Samar Elmnhrawy: How companies in the Middle East can catch up on gender equality

The National Editorial: Is there much to celebrate on International Women's Day 2021?

Justin Thomas: Challenge the notion that 'men are from Mars, women are from Venus'

THURSDAY'S FIXTURES

4pm Maratha Arabians v Northern Warriors

6.15pm Deccan Gladiators v Pune Devils

8.30pm Delhi Bulls v Bangla Tigers

How does ToTok work?

The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store

To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.

The app then gives users the option add their existing phone contacts, allowing them to immediately contact people also using the application by video or voice call or via message.

Users can also invite other contacts to download ToTok to allow them to make contact through the app.

The National's picks

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

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

Brief scores:

Day 1

Toss: South Africa, field first

Pakistan (1st innings) 177: Sarfraz 56, Masood 44; Olivier 4-48

South Africa (1st innings) 123-2: Markram 78; Masood 1-4

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

Women & Power: A Manifesto

Mary Beard

Profile Books and London Review of Books

WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?

1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull

2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight

3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge

4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own

5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed

The rules on fostering in the UAE

A foster couple or family must:

be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
not be younger than 25 years old
not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially

While you're here

Andrew Wilks: The violent legacy of a group that France plans to ban

Damien McElroy: Biden must not fall for Erdogan's promised reforms

David Lepeska: 16th-century pirates inspire Erdogan's foreign policy

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

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.”