JERUSALEM // Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority prime minister, defiantly toured Israeli-controlled land in the West Bank yesterday, vowing to rebuild a road that Israel recently destroyed in the area.
Near the northern village of Bani Hassan, the two-kilometre, PA-built road falls on a swath of land that the represents roughly 60 per cent of the West Bank. Although under Israel's exclusive authority, the Palestinian leader's pledge to rebuild the motorway is part of his effort to defy Israel's control over the area that he has called necessary for building an independent Palestinian state.
"We are going to rebuild this road and do it quickly," he told a group of villagers as he examined the damage. "And if they are going to destroy it again, we will build it again, and we will pursue development in every square inch of our territory."
His tour is the latest in a stepped-up campaign by Palestinian leaders to assert their claims on the disputed territory as direct peace negotiations with Israel are on the verge of collapse.
Although they resumed on September 2, the talks were effectively suspended three weeks later when Israel refused to extend a partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank.
Earlier this month, Mr Fayyad said the PA had financed the renovation of 14 schools in East Jerusalem - in defiance of Israel's control over the disputed area.
On Monday, his boss and PA president, Mahmoud Abbas, warned that Israel's settlements on occupied land had become "a time bomb" for the peace process. Israel seized, and since controlled, both East Jerusalem and the West Bank following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war; both areas Palestinians want to form their future state.
In a message read at the United Nations in New York, Mr Abbas said that "the deterioration in the peace process must be addressed."
"This requires bringing a decisive and final end to the vicious Israeli settlement campaign," he said, adding that Israel's settlements "constitutes a time bomb that could destroy everything we have accomplished on the road to peace at any moment".
Israel's UN ambassador, Meron Reuben, responded sharply to Mr Abbas' criticism, saying it "takes two to tango, Israel cannot reach this peace on its own."
"We can only achieve peace with the Palestinians through compromise and direct and bilateral negotiations," he said. "We can only move forward through bilateral negotiations that address the concerns of both sides."
Meanwhile, on Monday, the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee approved construction on 130 new housing units near Gilo, an Israeli settlement located on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The plans have also sparked controversy among both Palestinians and Israelis, in the latter's case because the land had previously been allotted for the construction of hotels.
Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, condemned the announcement, saying in a statement that Israel was pushing "its agenda to further isolate Bethlehem from occupied east Jerusalem".
The announcement has also sparked controversy for moving ahead despite a Jerusalem Municipality rule that forbids re-zoning land originally designated for hotels for residential purposes, the English-language version of Yediot Ahronot, an Israeli daily newspaper, reported on Monday.
Yossef Alalo, a Jerusalem councilman, opposed the plan for reasons "both political and professional".
"Politically, it will influence ties between Israel and the Palestinians, and professionally, there is no doubt that this is a direct continuation of Holyland."
However, Elie Isaacson, a spokesman for the Jerusalem mayor, Nir Barkat, said the plans would go on despite the controversy.
"The municipality of Jerusalem will continue to build in all areas of the city, both for Jews and for Arabs, according to the overall plan, likewise in the neighbourhood of Gilo," he said.
hnaylor@thenational.ae
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Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
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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.”