Tell City Harvest: "Don't Whitewash Leviev's Abuses!"

Ms. Jilly Stephens
Executive Director
City Harvest
6 East 32nd Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY

CC: jstephens@cityharvest.org, executivedirector@cityharvest.org

November 7, 2012

Dear Ms. Stephens,

As New Yorkers and others concerned with social justice and human rights, we recognize the valuable role that City Harvest plays in helping to alleviate hunger and address the underlying causes of poverty in our city, especially at this time of crisis for many in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Knowing City Harvest’s mission, we feel certain that you will be concerned to learn that, according to a press report, City Harvest is now benefiting from support from Lev Leviev, who is directly involved in increasing food insecurity and poverty of Palestinian families by developing Israeli settlements on expropriated Palestinian farmland. Leviev’s diamond companies are also involved in brutal human rights abuses, unethical business practices and impoverishing communities in Angola and Namibia.

In light of this information, we expect that City Harvest will do the right thing, and refuse donations linked to Leviev, following the example of prominent nonprofits - Oxfam America, CARE, and UNICEF; governments - including Norway and the United Kingdom; and Hollywood stars that have all sought distance from Leviev’s companies over their unethical business practices.

Leviev’s companies have a long, well-documented history of construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, as detailed below. While all Israeli settlements violate international law, they also increase Palestinian poverty. A November 2011 report by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) explains that Israeli settlement “activity has resulted in the progressive takeover of Palestinian land, resources and transportation routes.” A 2008 World Bank report adds, “Palestinian farmers with agricultural land near settlements can find these properties difficult to cultivate and harvest due to intimidation, violence, or property damage by settlers. Furthermore, in some areas near settlements considered to be high friction areas, harvesting of olive orchards is limited to only specific days designated by the Israeli military with a military escort. As a result, much agriculture land is in effect withdrawn from production, or shifted to lower value and less perishable crops (e.g. from fruit and vegetable to cereals), while hardly any infrastructure investment is carried out, be it on- or off- farm, with resultant decline in income.”

From 2000-2008, Leviev’s flagship company Africa Israel built homes in the settlements of Har Homa, Maale Adumim (two different projects), Adam, and in Mattityahu East on the land of the West Bank village of Bil’in. Leviev’s flagship company Africa Israel is currently building apartments in the settlement of Gilo in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. Press accounts from October 24, 2010, reported that Africa Israel’s construction subsidiary Danya Cebus planned to build four 10-12 story apartment buildings in Gilo. 2012 Photos from Gilo that were posted online by Adalah-NY show signs and construction equipment emblazoned with the name Danya Cebus. In May 2012, a marketing representative for the project told the Israeli watchdog group Who Profits that three buildings are in advanced stages of construction, and that the last building will be completed in May 2014.

Another Leviev company, Leader Management and Development, is developing the settlement of Zufim on the agricultural land of the West Bank Palestinian village of Jayyous, and the land of other neighboring villages (click for original Hebrew and translated English ownership documents and see Who Profits, and Israel’s Peace Now), According to Israel’s Ministry of Defense’s official Spiegel database for settlements from 2007, Leader was responsible for establishing the settlement of Zufim and responsible for construction and infrastructure in the settlement (English translation). Photos compiled by Adalah-NY from Zufim show signs for Leader and settlement homes in and around Zufim. A Hebrew language website advertisement for Leader’s activities in Zufim says, among other things, “We in Leader Company offer you developed lots for self-construction in diverse options that give you the opportunity to build your dream house.”

In Angola, where Leviev is a major partner of the Angolan government in the diamond industry, human rights abuses and the impoverishment of local communities by diamond companies have also been thoroughly documented. In 2011, leading Angolan researcher Rafael Marques explained in the Guardian’s Comment is Free that, “In the Lundas region, which produces over a billion dollars a year of revenue from its diamonds, the government and the mining companies regularly destroy subsistence farming and the livelihood of the local communities uprooted as a result of mining operations, without providing jobs or alternative means of subsistence.” Marques has reported extensively on the mining companies that partner with Angola’s government and military, including Leviev’s companies. In a December 2008 article in the Israeli financial journal Globes that was translated to English by Adalah-NY, Marques said, “The only people who really profit from the Kimberly Process are Leviev and Morris Templesman [another diamond man who purchases unprocessed diamonds] who use it for their own purposes and who get a cover for exploiting workers from the Kimberly Process."

A June 2010 report in the Wall Street Journal “The ‘Blood Diamond’ Resurfaces,” cites Leviev’s companies as major players in Angola’s Lundas region. The article explains, “A visit to Angola's diamond heartland reveals that plenty of blood still spills over those precious stones… a violent economy prevails in which thousands of peasant miners eke out a living searching for diamonds with shovels and sieves. Because they lack government permits, miners and their families say they are routinely beaten and shaken down for bribes by soldiers and private security guards—and, in extreme cases, killed.”

Accusations of diamond smuggling by Lev Leviev Diamonds Namibia led the Namibian government to shut down Leviev’s operations there and caused renewed labor strife. In 2008 Lev Leviev Diamonds in Namibia fired 153 striking low-wage workers.

We feel certain that City Harvest would not want to taint its credibility by accepting money from a businessman who impoverishes and abuses Palestinians, Angolans and Namibians in order to reduce hunger in New York City. Therefore, we call on City Harvest to reject support from and cut ties with Lev Leviev.

We would be happy to meet with you to discuss these issues, and to provide any additional information that might be helpful in your decision-making.

Thank you,

Patrick Connors and Hannah Mermelstein, Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (adalahny.org)

Charlotte Philips, Brooklyn For Peace (brooklynpeace.org/)

Fahd Ahned, DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving) (www.drumnation.og)

Nikhil Aziz, Grassroots International (www.grassrootsonline.org/)

Donna Nevel, Jews Say No! (jewssayno.wordpress.com/)

Park Slope Food Coop Members for BDS

Ms. Jilly Stephens
Executive Director
City Harvest
6 East 32nd Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY

CC: Cara Taback, Associate Director/Communications

December 5, 2012

Dear Ms. Stephens,

We are writing to follow up on our November 7th letter, and our November 16th phone discussions with City Harvest’s Cara Taback regarding an October 2012 media report that businessman Lev Leviev is providing support to City Harvest. We noted in our letter that Leviev’s companies are involved in human rights abuses, unethical business practices and impoverishing communities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Angola and Namibia. Because City Harvest aims to alleviate hunger and address underlying causes of poverty in New York City we suggest that Leviev, who does the contrary in other countries, is not an appropriate donor.

We were relieved to hear from Ms. Taback that City Harvest had no knowledge of an October 2012 fundraising event at Leviev Diamonds in New York City to benefit City Harvest, had received no funds from such an event and was not aware of Leviev Diamonds’ plans to support City Harvest with a portion of its November sales.

Unfortunately, additional research has since revealed to us that over a period of more than two years, a number of articles have created an image of Leviev as a patron of City Harvest, whether or not this is true. To counter the public impression that a notorious human rights abuser is a regular benefactor of City Harvest, we believe that City Harvest should now publicly disavow any connection with Leviev. Otherwise, Leviev will exploit City Harvest’s name to deflect attention from his unethical business practices.

In addition to the October 2012 article we originally noted saying that Leviev Diamonds plans to donate a portion of it sales to City Harvest, the blog of the celebrity photographer Patrick McMullan includes an October 22 post headlined, “LEVIEV celebrates the launch of the LVD Collection with Heather Mnuchin & Nina Rennert Davidson to benefit City Harvest,” followed by 100 photos of the event. Yet, the October 22, 2012 event was not the first that Leviev held for City Harvest. Bloomberg Businessweek reported in July 2012 that, “City Harvest board member Heather Mnuchin is doing so [opening her home] in August for a viewing of the diamond collection of Leviev LVD, a City Harvest supporter.” A February 10, 2010 news piece in Women’s Wear Daily explained that, “There were diamonds but seemingly no divas at Leviev on Tuesday afternoon at a pre-gala kick off luncheon for City Harvest.” Heather Mnuchin and Nina Rennert Davidson are highlighted in these and other articles as organizers of Leviev events benefitting City Harvests Ms. Mnuchin is listed as Vice Chairman of the City Harvest Board. In City Harvest’s 2011 Annual Report, Ms. Mnuchin and her husband are listed as donating more than $500,000 that year to City Harvest, while Ms. Davidson and her husband are listed as donating between $50,000 – $99,000.

Lastly, while we detailed Leviev’s involvement in human rights abuses and unethical business practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Angola and Namibia in our November 7th letter, new questions have since been raised about Leviev’s business practices in Zimbabwe, a country that has been the focus of extremely heavy international scrutiny for human rights abuses committed by the Zimbabwean government against local communities in the Marange diamond fields. In a new report, “Reap What You Sow: Greed and Corruption in Zimbawe’s Marange Diamond Fields,” diamond industry watchdog Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) explained that Leviev “has been a frequent visitor to Zimbabwe in recent years and is known to have participated in an auction of Mbada diamonds in May 2010—a full three months before the KP [Kimberley Process] authorized two conditional sales as per the ‘St. Petersburg Agreement.’” PAC does not conclude whether or not Leviev purchased diamonds in violation of the Kimberley Process, the international regulatory system aimed at reducing the trade of conflict diamonds.

Unfortunately, City Harvest is now clearly linked to Leviev’s abysmal human rights record through a number of media reports over a two year period, saying that Leviev is hosting fundraisers and donating money to City Harvest. We call on City Harvest to stand by its mandate of supporting impoverished communities by publicly distancing itself from Leviev, following the examples of UNICEF, Oxfam America, CARE International and the UK and Norwegian governments.

We look forward to hearing your response, and please do be in touch if you have further questions or need further clarification on any of these points.

Thank you,

Ryvka Barnard, Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (adalahny.org)

Charlotte Philips, Brooklyn For Peace (brooklynpeace.org/)

Nikhil Aziz, Grassroots International (www.grassrootsonline.org/)

Donna Nevel, Jews Say No! (jewssayno.wordpress.com/)

Park Slope Food Coop Members for BDS