FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY, May 9 – On the day before Mother’s Day, 40 New York human rights advocates gathered at the Leviev jewelry store on Madison Avenue and called on throngs of weekend Madison Avenue shoppers to boycott Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev over his companies’ construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in West Bank villages including Bil’in and Jayyous. Mother’s Day is one of the biggest jewelry shopping periods in the US annually. The New York protest came as controversy is growing in Norway over Norwegian government investments in Leviev’s company Africa-Israel. The New York protesters also commemorated Bassem Abu Rahma from Bil’in who was shot to death by Israeli soldiers last month during a peaceful protest against the construction on Bil’in’s land of Israel’s wall and of the Mattityahu East settlement by a Leviev company.

Riham Barghouti of Adalah-NY explained, “Thousands of New Yorkers heard our message today that Leviev should not be allowed to exploit this holiday honouring mothers while his companies are ruining the lives of Palestinian mothers by stealing their land for Israeli settlements.” Alexis Stern from Adalah-NY added, “The government of the United Kingdom, UNICEF and Oxfam are all now boycotting Leviev. We’re calling on New Yorkers, and the government of Norway to join them.”

May 5, 2009

The Council on Ethics
Norwegian Government Pension Fund
Government of Norway

Dear Members of the Council on Ethics,

As diverse organizations concerned with human rights, international law, justice and peace in the Middle East, we are writing in support of the West Bank villages of Bil’in and Jayyous to call on the Norwegian government to conform with its own ethical guidelines[i] and divest its pension holdings from the company Africa-Israel, owned by Lev Leviev. According to a Norwegian Government report,[ii] as of December 31, 2008 a total of 6,665,567 Kroner in Norwegian government pension funds were invested in Africa-Israeli Investments and Africa-Israel Properties.

Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel in New York City.

Shaya Boymelgreen and Lev Leviev:
destroying communities and violating laws in Palestine and New York City.

Summary

Israeli American real estate developer Shaya Boymelgreen and Israeli businessman Lev Leviev are building destructive projects in New York City and in the Occupied West Bank in Palestine. Leviev and Boymelgreen are building strategic settlements in the Occupied West Bank which violate international law and aim to ensure Israeli control over key areas in the West Bank, rendering peace between Israelis and Palestinians impossible. In Palestine and in New York City they are committing similar abuses: expelling low-income, local residents from their communities, violating laws, and exploiting laborers.

Leviev, one of Israel’s wealthiest businessmen, is building the Mattityahu East settlement on the lands of the village of Bil’in with partner Shaya Boymelgreen, the Zufim settlement on the lands of the village of Jayyous, and the strategic West Bank settlements of Har Homa and Maale Adumim around Jerusalem which divide the northern West Bank from the Southern West Bank. In Bil’in and Jayyous, Boymelgreen and Leviev are building settlements on village land despite intensive nonviolent protest campaigns mounted by the two Palestinian villages against the construction.

Leviev, a major diamond trader who mines diamonds in Africa and polishes them in Israel, uses some of these profits to help finance his illegal settlement construction. Shaya Boymelgreen, until recently Leviev’s partner in real estate development in New York City and still his partner in building Mattityahu East, has angered so many so many community members in New York City with his abusive developments that he has become the target of local organizing campaigns.

Zufim and Mattityahu East settlements, built by Leviev and Boymelgreen, are projects “that aimed both to establish enclaves in the Occupied Territories for wealthy, more ‘mainstream’ settlers, and to dissolve the Green Line (Israel’s pre-1967 border) by creating ‘facts on the ground’—linking the new settlements to communities inside the Line, while expanding the latter in the direction of the Territories.” – Israeli historian Gadi Algazi, July, 2006, Settlers on Israel’s Eastern Frontier, Le Monde Diplomatique.