Human Rights Activists Call For Diamond Boycott
Human Rights Activists Call For Diamond Boycott
New York,
NY, April 18 - New York human rights activists,
and
representatives of the West Bank Palestinian villages
of Bil'in and
Jayyous called on the government and the
people of the United Arab
Emirates to boycott the jewelry
stores of Israeli billionaire and
diamond magnate Lev
Leviev over his companies' construction of
Israeli
settlements. According to a flurry of recent media
reports,
Leviev is opening jewelry stores in Dubai during
2008.
"We call on the government and people of the United
Arab Emirates to
join the growing international campaign
to boycott Lev Leviev's
companies due to their
construction of Israeli colonial settlements,
and their
human rights violations in Angola," declared
Daniel
Lang-Levitsky of Jews Against the Occupation-NYC.
"A major Israeli
violator of Palestinian rights and
international law should not be
opening jewelry stores in
Dubai," added Adalah-NY spokesperson Issa
Ayoub.
Adalah-NY has organized eight boycott protests
outside
Leviev's new Madison Avenue jewelry store over
the last five months.
In the last few days, media have
reported that Lev Leviev Diamonds
will open two stores in
Dubai this year. In the fourth quarter of
2008,
construction will begin on a store to be located in the
Burj
Dubai Mall. The second will open in September in the
new Atlantis
Hotel on Jumeirah Palm Island. Leviev has
already opened one store in
Dubai in March, 2008 in the
lobby of Al-Qasr Hotel on Madinat
Jumeirah.
Leviev's
company Leader is building the settlement of Zufim on
the
land of the West Bank village of Jayyous. The company
Danya Cebus, a
subsidiary of Leviev's Africa-Israel, has
also built Israeli
settlements on the land of the village
of Bil'in, and has built homes
in Maale Adumim and Har
Homa on Jabal Abu Ghneim, encircling and
cutting off East
Jerusalem from the West Bank. Israel is building its
wall
to the east of all these settlements, with the aim of
annexing
them to Israel. Leviev also donates to the Land
Redemption Fund, an
Israeli settler organization which
has used deceit and strong-arm
tactics to secure
Israeli-occupied Palestinian land for settlements
in
villages like Bil'in and Jayyous.
Israeli settlements
directly violate international law according to
the UN,
all major human rights organizations and the
International
Court of Justice's 2004 advisory opinion on
Israel's wall. The IJC's
opinion also said that states
are responsible for ensuring that
Israel complies with
international law.
Abdullah Abu-Rahme from Bil'in and
Sharif Omar from Jayyous
explained, "Leviev's companies
are destroying the olive groves and
farms that have
sustained our villages for centuries, and are
profiting
from human rights abuses." The growing
international
movement to boycott Israel has developed in
response to the 2005
Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions (BDS) call by 171
Palestinian civil society
organizations (www.bds-palestine.net)
asking for "people
of conscience all over the world to impose broad
boycotts
and implement divestment initiatives against Israel
similar
to those applied to" apartheid South Africa in
order to end "Israel's
persistent violations of
international law," and "colonial and
discriminatory
policies."
In Angola, Leviev works closely with the
repressive Dos Santos regime
to mine and sell the
country's diamonds, and he employs the private
security
firm K&P Mineira, which has been accused of
torturing,
sexually abusing and even murdering Angolans.
According to the
non-profit watchdog group Partnership
Africa Canada, around 10% of
the diamonds sold from
Angola, including some of Leviev's, fail to
comply with
the Kimberley Process which was created to end the
trade
in "blood
diamonds."
ends