NABLUS // The job of heading off clashes between Palestinians and Jewish settlers on the outskirts of this venerable West Bank city falls to a small number of employees of the Palestinian Authority's housing and village affairs unit. Two, to be exact.
For more than five years, Ghassan Doughlas and his assistant Khader Oweis have toiled to devise ways to support outlying Palestinian villages that bear the brunt of violence from neighbouring Jewish settlements.
Security for most of the 60 villages surrounding Nablus is technically the responsiblity of the Israeli military but, in fact, it does little to protect Palestinians from attacks by Jewish settlers. That leaves Mr Doughlas and Mr Oweis as jacks-of-all-trades - troubleshooters, peacemakers, fundraisers - as they attempt to stem what Palestinian officials describe as a mushrooming number of clashes between settlers and Palestinians.
Together the men form a flimsy bulwark against the rising tide of violence.
"You could make a thriller movie about what we see here on a daily basis," said Mr Doughlas, 39 who often finds himself consoling Palestinian families of loved ones beaten, or even killed, during the clashes.
Last month, there were 193 incidents of West Bank settler violence, as well as land confiscations and building demolitions by Israel's military, according to statistics released by the PA, which added that these "attacks are so frequent that the Israeli authorities must be able to take action if they choose to".
Even Israeli officials appear to be alarmed by settler anger, which in recent months has expanded to target the Israeli military for its role in occasionally dismantling outposts - the rough-hewn encampments that settlers establish as a beachhead for larger, more formal settlements.
Rightwing settlers from Yitzhar, near Nablus, recently set fire to the car of Israel's West Bank military commander, Brigadier General Nitzan Alon. They have also picketed in front of his home, prompting Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barack, to condemn the intimidation as "a scandal".
However, it is the unpunished brutality against against Palestinians by both settlers and Israeli soldiers that consumes the days of Mr Doughlas and Mr Oweis. They raise funds to buy CCTV cameras that villagers install on homes and shops to monitor settler attacks. They arrange compensation for Palestinians who are wounded in settler attacks or whose property is damaged.
They also work to dissuade aggrieved Palestinians, sometimes unsuccessfully, from resorting to violence. In the process, they sometimes are targets of it themselves.
"The settlers know my face, they know who I am," said Mr Doughlas, 39, who has had to fend off his share of threats and barrages of stones hurled from settlers.
Their ramshackle office in downtown Nablus resembles a majlis, where Palestinians lodge complaints against olive-tree groves burnt by settlers, torched mosques, vandalised vehicles and armed clashes.
On a recent day, hectic crowds stormed their office to decry such abuses. Human-rights researchers turned up to record statistics on settler attacks. The two men even had to play hosts to an emergency meeting with Nablus's governor, the head of the Palestinian Water Authority and other local politicians about a village riot that erupted earlier that day over water shortages in a nearby village.
"This is my life everyday - no holidays for me," said Mr Doughlas, as a group of men waved complaint forms in his face.
One man, Ahmed Adweikat, 41, from the nearby village of Rujib, came seeking compensation for the settlers who he said had set aflame 70 of his olive trees last month. He said he was afraid to approach the Israeli military with his complaint and request of compensation. He, like most others, prefers to lodge grievances against Israel with Mr Doughlas.
"The [Israeli] army is always on the settlers' side," said Mr Adweikat. "They tell us not to complain; otherwise they'll blindfold and beat us if we do."
Mr Doughlas, he said, "at least tries to help us."
Increasingly, Mr Doughlas and Mr Oweis seem to be concentrating more on containing rising Palestinian frustrations with the PA itself, fuelled by popular uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world and the stalemated Israel-Palestinian peace process.
"We are doing our best to help the people keep their complaints peaceful," said Mr Oweis, 43 But he said he feared that his work was seen by local residents as more about the PA controlling their behaviour than helping them resolve their grievances.
"We're the middle men between the PA and the people, and we're trying to stop another intifada," he said.
His concerns were on full display that afternoon. He and Mr Doughlas were called to mediate a peaceful end to a riot that erupted over water rationing imposed by the PA on a cluster of villages.
At the entrance of a Palestinian Water Authority depot, a group of two-dozen men had set fire to tyres, sending fingers of black smoke billowing into the sky.
Mr Douglas squeezed his way into the middle of the mob, announcing over derisive shouts: "This is my country, too, people. I feel and understand you."
After 15 minutes of shouting and hand-wringing, the group eventually doused their burning tyres and went home hoping that Mr Doughlas' promise of a speedy solution would materialise.
Returning to his office, a tired Mr Doughlas said: "We've had two intifadas, and we saw what happened to our people. We can't have another."
hnaylor@thenational.ae
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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.”
The specs: 2019 Mini Cooper
Price, base: Dh141,740 (three-door) / Dh165,900 (five-door)
Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder (Cooper) / 2.0-litre four-cylinder (Cooper S)
Power: 136hp @ 4,500rpm (Cooper) / 192hp @ 5,000rpm (Cooper S)
Torque: 220Nm @ 1,480rpm (Cooper) / 280Nm @ 1,350rpm (Cooper S)
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 4.8L to 5.4L / 100km
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
