An Irish aid boat is on course to dock in Gaza at the weekend, activists said today and called on the UN to help ensure its safe passage after deadly Israeli raids stopped a flotilla this week.
The MV Rachel Corrie carrying 15 people including a Nobel Prize winner and a former top UN official was less than 720 kilometres from where six boats were boarded in an Israeli raid which left nine dead.
"We want to emphasise that our aim is not provocation but getting our aid cargo into Gaza," said former UN assistant secretary general Denis Halliday, in a statement released by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC).
"We are calling on the UN to inspect the cargo and escort us into Gaza, and to send a UN representative to sail on board before they enter the exclusion zone," he added.
Irish prime minister Brian Cowen has said that the Rachel Corrie must be allowed to reach Gaza and warned of "the most serious consequences" if Irish citizens were injured.
Five of those on board are Irish, including Halliday and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, 66. The others are five Malaysians, four Indonesians and a Scottish captain.
"It's going about 200 miles a day," said Kevin Squires of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC).
"So it's expected to reach sometime on Saturday," he told AFP, while adding: "I think they want to get there during the day, in daylight, so they might slow down or speed up, depending on when that would actually be."
Asked how its passengers would respond if Israeli authorities try to stop or board the vessel, he added: "Their aim is to get to Gaza, but if the Israelis try to stop them they won't resist.
"They'll sit down and put their arms in the air ... They can't very well carry on through a blockade. They will sit down and be arrested," he said.
The boat is carrying some 750 tonnes of aid including medical and school supplies, toys, and cement, according to the vessel's manifest, supplied by the organisers.
The cement - intended for reconstruction in Gaza, according to organisers - may prove problematic.
"The presence of cement on board the vessel is not regarded by the Israelis as a product that is simply humanitarian. We await to see what emerges from that definition," the Irish premier said on Wednesday.
One of the Malaysians on board, Shamsul Akmar, said: "We are prepared to face whatever situation that awaits us and we are determined to go ahead and carry on with this mission."
"Everyone on board is in high spirits," he added in a Twitter message posted by Malaysia's Perdana Global Peace Organisation.
The boat is named after Rachel Corrie, an activist killed in 2003 as she tried to prevent an Israeli military bulldozer from razing a Palestinian home in Rafah.
Ms Corrie's parents Cindy and Craig called today for international pressure on Israel to allow aid ships safe passage to Gaza.
"The US and other governments can and must insist that other boats from the flotilla, including the MV Rachel Corrie, named for our daughter, be permitted to sail through international waters to Gaza unobstructed," they said.
Mr Halliday added: "We all remain in good spirits, and we want to thank everyone all over the world for all their support."
* AFP
Mourners in Istanbul hoisted coffins Thursday to cheers of "God is great!" as they honoured activists slain during an Israeli commando raid, and the father of the lone American killed praised his teenage son as being a martyr for a just cause.
The joint funeral came as Israel rejected demands for an international panel to investigate its deadly takeover Monday of six aid ships trying to break Israel's three-year blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hotly rejected calls to lift the blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza, insisting the ban prevents missile attacks on Israel.
Some 10,000 people prayed Thursday outside Istanbul's Fatih mosque before eight Turkish and Palestinian flag-draped coffins lined up in a row in a traditional service for the dead. Eight Turks and an American of Turkish origin were honoured, ranging in age from over 60 to 19. A ninth victim, a Turkish man, was having a service on Friday.
"Our friends have been massacred," said Bulent Yildirim, the head of the Islamic charity group IHH that organized the Gaza flotilla, before mourners carried the coffins through the crowd to cars to be taken for burial.
* AP
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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.”
