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Religious leaders in Jerusalem have been unable to maintain open dialogue as a result of the Israel-Gaza war, Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch has said.
Leaders of Christian, Jewish and Muslim denominations in the capital could “barely understand each other”, in the fallout from the October 7 Hamas-led attacks, and with Israel’s continuing military campaign in Gaza, said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who leads the loyal-to-Rome Catholic church in the city.
“I used to meet the hierarchy of Muslim authorities, Jewish authorities, and so on. Now it’s difficult,” he said, speaking at a press briefing during his visit to London.
“After years of dialogue, we are at a point where we do not understand each other.”
We cannot replace Unrwa
Pierbattista Pizzaballa
Jewish communities have accused Christian faith leaders of not showing “enough empathy” with Israel about the attacks on October 7, while Muslim leaders were condemned for having “said nothing” and not attempting to “understand” the Israeli position.
Cardinal Pizzaballa admonished his counterparts for doing little to call for an end to the war, and asked critics of the church’s position to “at least respect our sorrow for the civilian victims”. Faith leaders were also wary of meeting publicly.
Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel when militants broke through the southern border on October 7, sparking an Israeli military campaign that has killed more than 44,300 people in Gaza, and a severe humanitarian situation that led tens of thousands more to die of malnutrition and disease.
The divided city of Jerusalem has been rocked by tensions and continuing violence spilling over from the war. Palestinian homes have been demolished in the occupied East by the Israeli authorities, and far-right Israeli mobs have acted with increasing impunity.
Cardinal Pizzaballa briefed MPs about the situation in Israel-Palestine during his UK visit.
He believed that interfaith dialogue was more likely to come from the grass roots level. Despite the hatred, there were a lot of “engaged” movements and organisations seeking to build bridges. He met many local religious leaders for the first time, to talk about peace building initiatives. “The situation created new desires to change, to do something,” he said.
Changed realities
A new reality has set in, and any future peace process needs a new approach that acknowledges the failures of earlier initiatives, Cardinal Pizzaballa added.
“We need new ideas, to create new ideas, a new path and new channels. We need to take into consideration that what has been done until now, didn’t work, it’s a fact. Otherwise we wouldn’t be in such a terrible situation,” he said.
“We cannot presume that we can go back to rebuild and to redo the same things before after this deep tragedy. It's necessary to turn the page and to write something new,” he said.
“It’s very difficult to talk about perspective in this situation, as long as the conflict is going on, but we have to be ready after, when the military conflict is over,” he said.
Palestinians and Israelis were living alongside each other but with completely different understandings of the war. Palestinians viewed the conflict as an extension of the Nabka, their displacement in 1948. For Israelis, the reality that emerged after October 7 was “something new”.
“What is common, is the hatred, the mistrust,” he said, of both sides.
The Patriarchate was one of two bodies with humanitarian access channels to northern Gaza. The church was delivering about 100,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables every two weeks, which reached about 4,000 families, he said.
He recalled the complex negotiations with the Israeli authorities to obtain access to the strip. “It was complicated. We have to be stubborn sometimes and also tough, but also finding proper ways,” he said.
The aid, he added was a “drop in the ocean” compared to that supplied to Gaza by the UN’s aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, which will soon be prohibited in Israel. “We cannot replace UNRWA,” he said, adding that Patriarchate would only be able scale its aid up to reach 40,000 people.
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Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Company Profile
Name: JustClean
Based: Kuwait with offices in other GCC countries
Launch year: 2016
Number of employees: 130
Sector: online laundry service
Funding: $12.9m from Kuwait-based Faith Capital Holding
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
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MWTC
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Favourite book: ‘Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren
Favourite travel destination: Switzerland
Hobbies: Travelling and following motivational speeches and speakers
Favourite place in UAE: Dubai Museum
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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EA Sports FC 26
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Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
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Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
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5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
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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.”
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
Most F1 world titles
7 — Michael Schumacher (1994, ’95, 2000, ’01 ’02, ’03, ’04)
7 — Lewis Hamilton (2008, ’14,’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)
5 — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57)
4 — Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89, ’93)
4 — Sebastian Vettel (2010, ’11, ’12, ’13)
