|
Welcome To Adalah-NY
For Immediate Release
Palestinians Sue Canadian Companies Owned by Shaya Boymelgreen for War Crimes
Lev Leviev’s Company Danya Cebus in Israeli Settlement Partnership with Boymelgreen
New York, NY, July 10, 2008 – Evidence gathered by Adalah-NY indicates that Brooklyn-based billionaire Shaya Boymelgreen owns the two little-known Canadian companies sued Wednesday for war crimes in Canada by the West Bank Palestinian village of Bil’in. Three Hebrew language Israeli media reports from 2005-2006 report that Boymelgreen owns the Green Park companies that are now being sued for $2 million in Quebec Superior Court for building and selling the Israeli settlements of Mattityahu East/Modi’in Illit on Bil’in’s land in violation of international law. The construction of Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory violates the Fourth Geneva Convention according to a broad international consensus.
Additional evidence gathered by Adalah-NY shows that, though not a target of the lawsuit, the Israeli company Danya Cebus, a subsidiary of Lev Leviev’s company Africa Israel, was contracted by Boymelgreen’s Green Park to execute the settlement construction. Billionaires Leviev and Boymelgreen were US partners from 2002 -2007
Adalah-NY spokesperson Riham Barghouti explained, “We applaud the lawsuit filed by Bil’in for holding businesses accountable for settlement construction and violations of Palestinian rights. We also believe that these well-known Israeli businessmen like Boymelgreen and Leviev, who often try to hide their involvement in Israeli settlement construction from the international community, need to be made known to the public and to their business associates.”
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
For Immediate Release
On Fourth Anniversary of International Court Ruling, Protesters Call for Settlement-builder Lev Leviev to be Brought to Justice
New York, NY, July 9, 2008 – Thirty human rights advocates held a spirited protest in the rain outside the Leviev jewelry store on Madison Avenue today, demanding that Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev be brought to justice for his companies' construction of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Many protesters held signs featuring a large cartoon mug shot of Leviev emblazoned with the words, “Wanted, Lev Leviev, For Violating International Law.”
The protest was held on the fourth anniversary of the ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague, the world's highest legal body, that both Israeli settlements and the Wall Israel is building inside the West Bank to facilitate settlement expansion, violate international law. From Wednesday through Friday, similar demonstrations are being held in Palestinian towns like Jayyous and Bil’in that are directly affected by Leviev's illegal settlement construction.
Daniel Lang/Levitsky from Jews Against the Occupation, a member group in the Adalah-NY coalition, explained, “Our protest today is part of a growing worldwide movement to boycott and hold accountable Israeli businesses like those of Lev Leviev and his sometime partner Shaya Boymelgreen for abuses of Palestinian rights like settlement construction. We are also actively supporting people in Angola, Namibia and in New York City who are struggling against human rights abuses committed by Leviev’s companies.”
|
|
Read more...
|
Diamond Mogul, Lev Leviev, Facing Increasing Pressure for Human Rights Violations
New York, NY, June 19, 2008 – A senior advisor to UNICEF’s Director said in a letter today that UNICEF will reject all partnerships with, or financial support from, Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev. Leviev had previously provided UNICEF with support by sponsoring fundraising events in France. Leviev’s past support for UNICEF is featured in a number of places on his company’s website (www.leviev.com).
UNICEF’s rejection of Leviev’s support followed meetings with Adalah-NY, letters from organizations and Palestinian communities advocating a boycott of Leviev’s companies, and a visit by UNICEF officials to Jayyous, one of the Palestinian communities where a Leviev company is building Israeli settlements. Leviev’s diamond-mining companies in Angola have also been accused of serious human rights abuses.
Abdullah Abu Rahme, a community leader from the West Bank village of Bil’in, said, “We welcome UNICEF’s decision to hold one of the companies that has been building Mattityahu East settlement accountable for attempting to destroy our community. Our village has engaged in a three and a half year nonviolent campaign to save our land, and an international boycott is an important complement to our weekly protests. This is a victory, but we need many more like it.” Leviev’s companies have also recently built homes in the settlements of Maale Adumim and Har Homa, both of which cut off East Jerusalem from the West Bank.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
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.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
|
From IMEMC
|
The International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC News
|
| All the latest news posted to the IMEMC newswire. IMEMC is a collectively run media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth, offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage of news and events in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. |
|
|
|
