Category: Press Releases

The Arab American News: New York activists take on Israeli settlement builder

New York activists take on Israeli settlement builder

By Will Youmans
The Arab American News
Saturday, 01.19.2008, 02:49am

http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=USA&article=538

A network of pro-Palestinian organizations in New York is working hard to expose Israeli businessman Lev Leviev’s sponsorship of Israeli settlement construction. The groups have engaged in creative protests and organized boycotts and pressured those linked with Leviev. Their boycott campaign is gaining strong momentum.

Leviev is a real estate magnate and diamond dealer. He is building strategic settlements in the occupied West Bank. These settlements violate international law, including U.N. resolutions and the Geneva Conventions.

Many are joining the movement against Leviev because his real estate projects in New York expel local, low-income residents from their communities, violate laws, and exploit underpaid laborers.

Leviev, who is one of Israel’s wealthiest businessmen, is building the Mattityahu East settlement on the lands of the village of Bil’in, and the Zufim settlement on the lands of the village of Jayyous. He is also involved in construction on the West Bank settlements of Har Homa and Maale Adumim around Jerusalem. The settlements are designed to divide the northern West Bank from the southern West Bank, and encircle and disconnect Jerusalem.

Notably, the people of Bil’in, Jayyous and the surrounding areas are mounting intense nonviolent protest campaigns against the settlement construction. Last Friday, villagers of Bil’in were joined by around 70 Israeli, international, and other Palestinian human rights activists in a protest against the Apartheid Wall.

The demonstration began as a march towards the gate in the Wall, where soldiers were standing with guns drawn. At the front of the march was the banner, “Leviev turns these rocks of apartheid into diamonds.” The soldiers opened fire with rubber-coated bullets and shot tear gas at the unarmed protestors, injuring several of the protestors badly.

These encroachments come at a time when Palestinian statehood is being held out as a possibility. Leviev’s activities undermine these prospects.

Leviev’s diamond trade topped Israel’s 30 Leading Exporters list in 2007, with net exports of $522 million. He deals in diamonds mined in Africa, has them polished in Israel, and uses the profits to help finance the illegal settlement construction.

Leviev’s diamonds are cleared through the Kimberley process, in which NGOs and the United Nations certify diamonds as “conflict-free.” However, New York activists allege his company benefits the repressive Angolan government and has been tied with the military junta in Burma. Funding clear violations of international law in Israel and Palestine is enough for them to protest.

When Leviev opened a jewelry store on Madison Avenue in New York, activists mobilized. They protested during a cocktail party in November, chanting “you’re glitz, you’re glam, you’re building on Palestinian land,” and, “occupation is a drag, just say no to your gift bag.” They wrote and performed political Christmas carols, and have held five protests in front of the store.

The Jewish Voice for Peace group called out movie star Susan Sarandon after she crossed its picket line to attend the cocktail party. The group asked her to “publicly sever ties” with the jeweler. Sarandon, a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, denies being connected with Leviev.

Recently, media reports surfaced claiming that Leviev was a financial supporter of Oxfam, a major “group of non-governmental organizations from three continents working worldwide to fight poverty and injustice.” It was claimed on the website of a Jewish community group group Leviev heads.

The coalition group Adalah-NY heard from Oxfam that “Leviev has not been a donor to Oxfam.” Oxfam explained that it does not “knowingly accept funds from any business involved in any illegal activity, or operating in any illegally occupied territory, including settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Adalah-NY spokesperson Ethan Heitner commented, “We are unable to explain why articles praising Leviev and touting his charitable contributions, including an article on the news site of an organization he heads, claimed a link with Oxfam which Oxfam has now verified doesn’t exist. We are gratified that Oxfam has reiterated its longstanding opposition to Israeli settlement construction and refusal to accept donations from businesses like Leviev’s that are involved in violations of international law.”

Adalah-NY is a leading force behind the boycott campaign. Adalah-NY is joined by the U.S. organization Jewish Voice for Peace, Israel’s Coalition of Women for Peace, and leading Palestinian civil society organizations.

The group formed as a response to the escalation of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip at the end of June, 2006.

For more information on Adalah-NY visit www.mideastjustice.org.

Adalah-NY: Film screened in front of Leviev New York about Palestinian village protesting Leviev’s settlements

Adalah-NY contact: justiceme@gmail.com

New York, NY, Jan 21, 2008 – Twenty-five New York protesters and dozens of Madison Avenue passers-by braved sub-freezing temperatures Monday evening to watch the award winning documentary “Bil’in My Love” on the sidewalk 20 feet from the Madison Avenue jewelry store of Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev. Leviev’s company Danya Cebus has been building the Israeli settlement of Mattityahu East on the land of the West Bank village of Bil’in, threatening the village’s survival. The film, by Israeli director Shai Pollak, documents the first two years of Bil’in’s three year creative, nonviolent struggle to save its land from Israel’s wall and Leviev’s settlements.

Adalah-NY spokesperson Ethan Heitner explained, “The screening tonight brought images of the impacts of Leviev’s violations of international law in Palestine and the courageous resistance of his victims to his Manhattan doorstep, in one of wealthiest neighborhoods in the world.” The protest, organized by the New York activist group Adalah-NY and calling for a boycott of Leviev, was the sixth held at LEVIEV New York since the store opened in November.

“Bil’in My Love,” won Best Documentary at the 2006 Jerusalem Film Festival, and a special award at the 2006 Rotterdam film festival. On the US holiday honoring the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., hundreds of passers-by received flyers with photos juxtaposing the Palestinian struggle for freedom with the struggle against Apartheid South Africa and the US civil rights struggle of African-Americans.

The Israeli military has injured over 800 Israeli, Palestinian and international protesters in more than 200 demonstrations in Bil’in over three years. 49 Bil’in residents, including some protest leaders, have been arrested. Some spent months in prison. The flyer quoted Mohammed Khatib from Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, and Sharif Omar of Jayyous’ Land Defense Committee explaining that, “We are engaged in a struggle for justice, for our freedom – indeed, for our very lives . . . . Leviev is destroying the olive groves and farms that have sustained our villages for centuries, and is profiting from human rights abuses.”

In addition to Mattityahu East, Leviev’s company Danya Cebus is building homes in the illegal settlements of Har Homa and Maale Adumim, surrounding East Jerusalem. Leviev’s company Leader is building the settlement of Zufim on the land of the village of Jayyous, the site of another long Palestinian nonviolent campaign. Leviev has been a major donor to the Land Redemption Fund, an Israeli organization that uses dubious means to secure Palestinian land to expand settlements. All Israeli settlements are widely deemed illegal under international law.

Dor Energy, a company which is 26% owned by Leviev’s company Africa Israel and is the monopoly fuel supplier to the Gaza Strip, has plunged Gaza City into darkness by participating in a cut of the fuel supply to Gaza with the Israeli government. In Angola, where Leviev mines many of his diamonds, a security firm he employs has been accused of brutal human rights abuses against Angolans. In New York City, Leviev, along with his former New York business partner Shaya Boymelgreen, was the target of a campaign by the ACORN and the Laborers Union in Brooklyn for their use of underpaid non-union labor to carry out sub-standard development projects.

Leviev has recently been caught up in a controversy—covered by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Ma’ariv and The Chronicle of Philanthropy—over media reports that he supports the charity Oxfam. Oxfam has reviewed its records and denies these claims, noting that Oxfam refuses donations from businesses that violate international law.

Issa Mikel of Adalah-NY noted that, “We’ll be back at LEVIEV New York with a bigger protest on Saturday, February 9 to tell New York shoppers that buying Leviev’s jewelry for Valentine’s Day supports the abuse of marginalized communities in Palestine, Angola, and right here in New York City.”

Jan. 21 photos: http://www.mideastjustice.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=73

Jan. 21 Video: http://www.mideastjustice.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=154&Itemid=72

Rafah: the breach in the wall is an act of freedom and a strong warning to the EU, the Quartet and Egypt

By Luisa Morgantini, Vice-President of the European Parliament

Brussels, 23rd January 2008,

“The thousands of Palestinians crossing the Rafah border point these last hours, the breach in the wall and the breaking of the siege decided by Israel against the civil population, are all true acts of resistance and an affirmation of the freedom of that people, not the Qassam rockets being fired at Israeli civilians that contravene international law, or the bloodshed inflicted on the Palestinian civil population perpetuated by Israeli raids.

When walls fall down there’s always a sense of freedom. The images we are getting from southern Gaza, with men and women pouring into Egypt in order to buy essential supplies such as food and medicines that are nowhere to be found because of four days of total closure and black out in the Gaza Strip, are the natural result of the inhuman siege imposed by Israel: as rightly declared by President Mahmoud Abbas, the responsibility lies with Israeli policy, which has forced people who are completely worn out to cross the borders of the cage in which they are imprisoned and collectively punished with complete disregard for humanity and international law.

This is the predictable outcome of a policy of isolation, not only towards Hamas, but also the one and a half million Gaza inhabitants, a policy that the European Union has also supported by endorsing de facto the embargo decided by Israel. Hamas risks to become stronger as a result of this situation, not weaker as can be seen by all the demonstrations that took place in the Islamic world during these cold and dark days in Gaza.

People pouring into Egypt and also people returning to Gaza after forced exile bringing any kinds of goods, show all of us the tragedy of a besieged but never resigned population, a population that has seen women in the front line of the demonstration struggling and being harshly repressed yesterday: these are the non-violent actions that should be supported and in which all Palestinians should gain renewed strength and unity.

I hope they will not be used by anyone to apply a definitive separation of Gaza and the West Bank in what should be the Palestinian State within the occupied territories of ’67.

But for sure they are also a warning for the International Community as a whole, first and foremost the Quartet, the European Union and Egypt, which are responsible for the transit of goods and people through Rafah Crossing. Unfortunately, they have never been able to accomplish this task.

I sincerely hope that Rafah border crossing with Egypt will be immediately opened and the legal freedom of movement for people and goods be established, not the arbitrary closures by Israel. Arms trafficking can be stopped without bombing and without enclosing the population in an open-air prison.

I hope that Olmert’s government receives this message: only the end of the Gaza siege, the end of the raids and of the military occupation can guarantee security for both people and the coherence needed for the respect of all commitments to peace.”

Al-Haq: End the Siege of the Gaza Strip

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ref.: 01.2008E
21 January 2008

On Sunday 20 January 2008, Israel’s ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip, including the blocking of fuel supplies, forced Gaza’s only power plant to shut down, plunging over 800,000 Palestinians into darkness. According to the General-Director of the plant, the shortage of electricity caused by the lack of fuel will affect the provision of medical care and water and sanitation services. On Sunday morning, the Gaza Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, which normally operates 130 wells as well as sewage treatment plants, stated that if the fuel supply is not restored by Tuesday, these services will cease to function throughout the Gaza Strip. Since Friday 18 January, Israel has also closed all Gaza’s border crossings and blocked all humanitarian aid, except in exceptional circumstances. With some 80 percent of Gaza’s population requiring food aid, the impact of these measures will be catastrophic. This escalation has also been accompanied by an intensifying of Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip in the first 19 days of 2008, costing the lives of 69 Palestinians, including four children and eight women, and the injury of over 190.

Israel’s current policy in relation to the Gaza Strip and its 1.5 million inhabitants constitutes an unmitigated violation of international humanitarian law including, but not limited to, Israel’s obligation as an Occupying Power to, at a minimum, ensure the basic needs of the population under its effective control, and the prohibitions on collective punishment, coercion and unlawful reprisals.

Israel’s current policy and recent actions have shown a casual disregard for the lives and dignity of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, treating their suffering and the violation of their fundamental rights as little more than an inconvenience that will earn gentle reprimand from the international community and Palestinian National Authority, but will otherwise be irrelevant. With the intolerable conditions and constant state of fear that the Gazan population is now forced to live under, it is time for this position to change. Israel must not be allowed to shield itself from the implementation of its international legal obligations, nor should the international community shy away from enforcing such implementation. Inarticulate fears of disrupting a “peace process” that exists only in vague declarations and diplomatic handshakes, that treats the Gaza Strip as separate from the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Palestinians as a divided people, cannot be an excuse for allowing the continued siege of the Gaza Strip. In fact, if any “peace process” is to succeed, the conclusion reached must embody a sense of justice. This requires, as an unavoidable starting point, that the fundamental rights of all parties be recognised and protected.

Al-Haq therefore calls upon,

* Israel to immediately cease all military operations in the Gaza Strip and to end its policy of collective punishment, including the opening of border crossings to allow the movement of goods and people, and restoring the supply of fuel and humanitarian aid.

* The Palestinian Liberation Organisation to establish Israel’s obligations under international law in respect of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, including ending the collective punishment and ensuring access to essential medical services, food and water and sanitation, as an integral part of any negotiations.

* Regional organisations and individual states to take concrete measures, including economic and diplomatic sanctions, to ensure Israel’s compliance with international law.

* All international agencies, including the UN, present in the OPT to actively draw the attention of international decision makers to the impact of Israeli policies on the Palestinian civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

* The UN Secretary-General immediately bring the situation in the Gaza Strip to the attention of the Security Council.

* Concerned individuals and civil society groups to raise Israel’s violations of international law with elected officials in their home counties.

* Palestinian armed groups to immediately cease the launching of rockets targeting civilian population centres in Israel.

– Ends –

Relief convoy to Gaza on Global Day of Action, January 26th

LIFT THE BLOCKADE ON GAZA!!

Saturday 26.1.08: A countrywide relief convoy and Israeli demonstration in solidarity on the Gaza border with a parallel Palestinian demonstration in the Strip.

On Saturday, 26 January 2008, a humanitarian convoy of supplies headed by peace and human rights organisations will go from Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beer Sheva to the Gaza Strip border, decked with signs “Lift the Blockade!” The convoy will meet up at 12.00 noon at Yad Mordechai Junction and all will then travel together to a hill which overlooks the Strip, where a demonstration will take place at 13:00. Speakers will be Shulamit Aloni, Uri Avnery, Ronit Matalon, Hassan Jabareen and Prof. Jeff Halper. There will be a ‘phone link between the Israeli demo and hundreds of Gazans on the Gaza side in Gaza City at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, demonstrating as part of the Palestinian-International Campaign to End the Siege,” one of whose spokesmen is psychiatrist and human rights activist, Dr. Eyad Sarraj.

The convoy will contain sacks of flour, food supplies and other essential products, especially water filters. Water supplies in Gaza are polluted, with nitrates at a level ten times the maximum recommended by the World Health Organisation. Due to the Israeli blockade, Gaza has a critical shortage of water filters, creating an intolerable violation of minimum humanitarian standards.

Organisers of the convoy will be appealing to the army for immediate permission for the goods to be allowed into the Strip, and are prepared for an ongoing campaign next to the border crossings, together with a public and judicial appeal; nearby kibbutzim, which are within the range of the Qassam rockets and mortars, have offered their warehouses for storage of the convoy’s goods.

A simultaneous demonstration will be taking place in Rome, Italy. There will also be demonstrations in various cities in America, at the initiative of San Francisco-based Jewish Voice for Peace.

To travel as part of the event, you may go in one of the convoys (8.30 a.m. departure from Reading Terminal in Tel Aviv, 8.45 a.m. from Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem) or join the general convoy as it leaves at 12 noon from Yad Mordechai Junction, or go individually to the demo, which will take place at “Nabiya Maraai Lookout,” near Kibbutz Mefalsim (from Yad Mordechai Junction, go on Road 34 and at Gavim Junction turn right onto Road 232, after about 6 kms, immediately after Kibbutz Mefalsim, turn right and go for a short distance to the site). A map showing the site of the demonstration is available on the website: http://toibillboard.info/26janmap.jpg

For further details: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom (0506-709603), Adi Dagan, Coalition of Women for Peace (0508-575730), Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, ICAHD (0547-366393).

Dr. Eyad Sarraj (Gaza), End the Siege on Gaza campaign, (0599-408438), Marwan Diab (Gaza), End the Siege on Gaza campaign, (0599-462037).

Participating organisations: Gush Shalom, Combatants for Peace, Coalition of Women for Peace, ICAHD – The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Bat Shalom, Bat Tzafon for Peace and Equality, Balad, Hadash, Adalah, Tarabut-Hithabrut, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, AIC – The Alternative Information Center, Psychoactive – Mental Health Workers for Human Rights, ActiveStills, The Students Coalition (Tel Aviv University), New Profile, MachsomWatch, PCATI – The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Yesh Gvul, Gisha, Local Television on the Internet.

Background: Despite unilateral evacuation of 7,000 settlers, the Gaza Strip remains Occupied Territory and the situation of its residents is increasingly worsening. The Government of Israel continues to control its airspace, territorial waters, population registry, tax system, supply of goods, freedom of movement and access to healthcare. Entry and exit of people and goods is completely controlled by Israel, and is currently under total closure, so that the Strip has actually become the largest prison in the world.

We sympathize with Sderot’s residents and others living near the border, exposed to traumatising Qassam rockets, but siege and collective punishment are no answer: although 1.5 million men, women and children are denied basic necessities, driven to the edge of starvation, Israel is increasing the daily deathtoll among Palestinians, many of whom are civilians, whilst the rocket fire has increased. Few Israelis ask why several Palestinian ceasefire offers have been rejected out of hand by the Israeli government. We’ll go to the Gaza border, in co-operation with Palestinian partners inside Gaza, to show there’s an alternative to siege and rocketfire – an alternative of peace.

Contributions for the purchase of supplies may be sent to P.O. Box 3322, Tel Aviv 61033, and cheques should be made out to “Gush Shalom” and labelled “For the Gaza convoy”, or you may make your donations to organisers actually at the demonstration.