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.
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.
A late-in-the-day political controversy implicated the Daphne Guinness show at FIT with the politics of its funder, diamond dealer Lev Leviev, accused of illegal encroachments on Palestinian land settlements in open letters to FIT by protesting groups. Fashion is political, across the culture spectrum.
January 6, 2012, New York, NY – In a letter today, the Land Defense Committee from the West Bank village of Jayyous implored fashion icon Daphne Guinness, New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) not to “help Lev Leviev to whitewash his illegal settlements on Jayyous’ farmland.” An exhibit of Daphne Guinness’ clothes at the FIT Museum, funded by diamond and settlement mogul Lev Leviev, is closing on January 7th, as scheduled after almost four months. Leviev has also recently donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
In November 21 and December 8 letters, a coalition of US and UK human rights groups, including Adalah-NY, CODEPINK: Women for Peace and Jewish Voice for Peace, called on Daphne Guinness, FIT and BCRF to distance themselves from Leviev. The groups cited Leviev’s companies’ development of Israeli settlements in violation of international law, and involvement in human rights abuses and unethical business practices in the diamond industry in Angola and Namibia.
In a letter released today, the Land Defense Committee from the West Bank village of Jayyous asked FIT, as well as the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which Lev Leviev also donates to, to distance themselves from the controversial diamond magnate and illegal settlement developer.
Jayyous has some of the most fertile agricultural lands in Palestine, providing 75% of Jayyous' income and fruits and vegetables to people throughout the West Bank. Furthermore, this area is significant because it contains artesian water wells which irrigate more than 8000 dunams (approx. 1977 acres) of land planted with all types of citruses and other fruits. These wells also irrigate 120 dunams (approx. 30 acres) of greenhouses which, throughout the year, are planted with tomatoes and cucumbers. These lands and those in Qalqilya and the village of Falamya are situated on the western drainage basin, which is this biggest of drainage basins in the West Bank, containing 362 million square meters of water per year. With this taken into account, Israel’s annexation wall was built and settlements were expanded to isolate 75% of these fertile lands as well as the drainage basin, thus depriving the citizens of their lands and water. In addition to this, the settlement of Zufim was built on parts of Jayyous’s lands. Initially, 200 dunams (approx. 49 acres) of these lands were confiscated by the Israeli army under the pretext of building a military camp, but, in 1991, they were used as a site for constructing the settlement of Zufim, which itself began to expand at the expense of Jayyous' neighbouring farmland.
Activists from Adalah-NY sang carols in the streets as the holidays approached. Juxtaposing familiar melodies with acerbic, witty lyrics, the activists sang in protest of the infamous Israeli settlement-developer and (possible blood) diamond magnate Lev Leviev and the Museum at FIT’s unrelenting sponsorship deal with him.
An Op-Ed claiming that the Christmas spirit is being manipulated by non-governmental organizations, including Adalah-NY, to advance anti-peace agendas, delegitimize Israel. and promote BDS.
New York, NY, December 17, 2011 – Sixty New Yorkers sang parody holiday carols calling for a boycott of Israeli settlement-developer and diamond magnate Lev Leviev this afternoon outside Leviev’s Madison Avenue jewelry store. Twenty-five protesters continued on to the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) where they sang, chanted and distributed flyers in front of Daphne Guinness’ clothing exhibition there, which is sponsored by “Leviev Extraordinary Diamonds.”
Outside Leviev’s high-end Madison Avenue jewelry store, the carolers, many wearing Santa hats, greeted holiday shoppers for the fifth consecutive year with favorites from the Anti-Apartheid Caroling Songbook including, “We Wish You a Loss of Business” (“We Wish You a Merry Christmas”), “Oh, Boycott, Boycott, Boycott” (“Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel”), and “Lev We All Can see the Folly” (“Deck the Halls”). They sang new songs, including “Lev’s Dirty Rocks” (“Jingle Bell Rocks”) and “Diamond Mines” (“Silver Bells”). To the tune of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” they recognized West Bank communities like Bil’in, Jayyous and Nabi Saleh that are protesting Israel’s seizure of their land for settlements, and sang:
