Tag: BDS

To view original letter, published by The Guardian on the 22nd November, click here

It is with great dismay that we learned of the British government’s plans to rent space for its new Tel Aviv embassy location from Lev Leviev’s company Africa-Israel. Africa-Israel builds Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Additionally, Leviev’s company Leader is building the settlement of Zufim. Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

We welcome the recent decision by the British government to take action against Israeli settlements by cracking down on settlement exports. However, renting space for the embassy from a settlement-builder would send a contradictory message, signalling clear and active complicity with illegal settlement construction. It is this kind of international complicity that allows Israel to continue to violate international law with impunity, thereby eroding the credibility of international law at the global level and in relation to occupied Palestinian territory. The UK Foreign Office says no lease has been signed but provides no assurance that such a deal will not take place. We therefore call on the British government to publicly guarantee that it will not do business with settlement-builders such as Lev Leviev and his company Africa-Israel.

Hanan Ashrawi Palestinian legislative council, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti PLC, Atallah Hannah Archbishop of Sebastia, Khaleda Jarrar PLC, Hussam Khader PLC, Ikrimah Sabri Sheikh of al-Aqsa Mosque, Bethlehem

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem

To view original article, published on the 3rd November, click here

Britain is taking the lead in pressing the EU to curb imports from Israeli producers in the occupied West Bank as a practical step towards halting the steady increase in the construction of Jewish settlements.

An internal EU note circulated by the UK expresses concern that goods produced from the settlements may be entering Britain after being illegally exempted from tariffs in violation of an Israel-EU trade agreement.

And the note, seen by The Independent, calls for the EU separately to consider afresh much more stringent labelling rules for settlement-produced goods in British stores to prevent them being designated as being from the “West Bank” in a way that could falsely imply that they have a Palestinian origin.

The initiative is the strongest sign yet of deepening official frustration in Whitehall at Israel’s persistent flouting of international exhortations to halt the construction of settlements – which are seen by Britain and most other countries as illegal. Moderate Palestinian leaders say continued settlement building is a major problem.

The Government proposes that other member states should follow its own example in conducting a “targeted” examination of goods imported from Israel to establish whether they were in fact produced inside the 1967 “green line”. Results from the Customs and Excise Study, to identify “potential settlement goods incorrectly described as being of Israeli origin”, have not yet been published.

The note complains that, at last year’s international Middle East summit in Annapolis, Israel committed to its Road Map obligations to “freeze all settlement activity”. It says that, instead, “there has been an acceleration in settlement construction activity since Annapolis”.

It also discloses that importers have been alerted to the need to check packaging to confirm that goods have indeed been produced inside Israel. The moves follow concern from NGOs and others that farmers and manufacturers in settlements may be being exempted from tariffs. EU customs staff are given postcodes meant to determine the origin of goods.

The note says Gordon Brown has proposed a No 10 “round table” with non-government organisations and retailers to discuss calls for consumers to have clearer information on whether goods were settlement-produced. Mike Bailey of Oxfam said yesterday: “It’s wrong for goods to be stocked in British shops where consumers do not know the conditions or legality under which they were produced.”

Several retailers, including Tesco, Sainsbury, Waitrose and Somerfield, say they import food – such as organic herbs – grown on settlements, but add that, by designating the goods as “West Bank”, they are complying with EU requirements to denote the area of origin. Marks & Spencer recently disclosed it had stopped stocking goods made in the West Bank.

The Israeli foreign ministry said it knew of the note and was holding “a dialogue” with the UK about it.

*An official at an Israeli cabinet briefing said yesterday that Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Bet security agency, had warned that Jewish settlers will use “warm weaponry” against Israeli security forces if there is a push to evacuate established settlements. His assessment comes amid stepped-up violence by settlers in Hebron in response to the army’s evacuation of a settler outpost.

Pro-Palestinian organizations furious over British Embassy’s plan to lease three floors in Tel Aviv skyscraper from company ‘involved in settlement construction in West Bank’

To view original article, published by Ynet on the 21st September, click here

The British government’s plan to rent new premises in a Tel Aviv skyscraper has sparked a wave of protests that their prospective landlord is a major participant in Jewish settlement-building in the West Bank, the London-based The Independent reported Saturday.

The British Embassy has been in negotiations to lease three floors in Kirya Tower from Africa Israel Investments, a company controlled by property and diamonds billionaire Lev Leviev.

According to the report, Pro-Palestinian organizations are urging the British Foreign Office to cancel the plans, arguing that one of the company’s subsidiaries is prominent in settlement building and that Leviev is a big contributor to the Land Redemption fund, which acquires Palestinian land for Jewish settlements.

Daniel Machover of the UK-based Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights organization said in a letter to The Independent that renting space from Leviev is “tantamount to HM Government condoning Israel’s settlement building, supporting clear violations of international law, which in some cases (amounts) to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and hindering the possibility of peace in the Middle East”.

According to The Independent, most Western governments – including Britain’s – regard settlements as illegal under international law.

Machover pointed out that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown strongly criticized continued settlement expansion on his visit to the Middle East this year.

Danya Cebus, a construction subsidiary of Africa Israel, has been accused by human rights activists of building homes in a number of West Bank settlements including the ultra-Orthodox settlement Modiin Illit, close to the Palestinian village of Bilin, the report said.

Several months ago, the UN children’s fund UNICEF decided to to review its relationship with Leviev after a campaign by Adalah-NY and found “at least a reasonable grounds for suspecting” that the billionaire’s companies were building settlements in occupied territory.

“I can confirm that UNICEF has advised Adalah in New York that it will not be entering into any partnerships or accepting financial contributions from Lev Leviev or his corporate people,” Chris de Bono, a senior adviser to the executive director of UNICEF, told Reuters at the time.

“We are aware of the controversy surrounding Mr. Leviev because of his reported involvement in construction work in the occupied Palestinian territory,” de Bono said, adding that it was UNICEF’s policy to have partners who were “as non-controversial as possible.”

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem

To view original article, published by The Independent on the 20th September, click here

The British Government’s plan to rent new premises in a Tel Aviv skyscraper hasrun into trouble after a wave of protests that their prospective landlord is a major participant in Jewish settlement-building in the occupied West Bank.

The British embassy has been in negotiations to lease three floors in Kirya Tower from Africa Israel Investments, a company controlled by Lev Leviev, a London-based property and diamonds billionaire with substantial business interests in Israel.

Pro-Palestinian organisations are urging the Foreign Office to cancel the plans, arguing that one of the company’s subsidiaries is prominent in settlement building and that Mr Leviev is a big contributor to the Land Redemption fund, which acquires Palestinian land for Jewish settlements.

Daniel Machover, of the UK-based Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, says in a letter to The Independent that renting space from Mr Leviev is “tantamount to HM Government condoning Israel’s settlement building, supporting clear violations of international law, which in some cases [amounts] to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and hindering the possibility of peace in the Middle East”. Most Western governments – including Britain’s – regard settlements as illegal under international law.

Mr Machover points out that Gordon Brown strongly criticised continued settlement expansion on his visit to the Middle East this year. And he says that the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in 2004 reminded third party states that they “are also under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by such construction”.

Danya Cebus, a construction subsidiary of Africa Israel, has been accused by human rights activists of building homes in a number of West Bank settlements including the ultra- Orthodox settlement Modiin Illit, close to the Palestinian village of Bil’in.

In June, the United Nations Children’s Fund, Unicef, announced, in response to lobbying by the United States-based Arab rights group Adalah NY, that it would no longer enter into partnerships or accept contributions from Mr Leviev because of his suspected involvement in settlement building. Mr Leviev had been a contributor to Unicef as well as a sponsor for at least one fund-raising event.

The embassy is understood to be looking into the allegations that Mr Leviev is also a contributor to the National Redemption Fund, which has been criticised for the some of the methods it uses to purchase land in the West Bank.

The embassy’s plans came to light when the Israeli business newspaper Globes reported that the British embassy was intending to move from its valuable decades-old premises in the city’s coastal Hayarkon Street to rent space in the 42-storey tower, more than half of which is occupied by Israeli government offices.

Globes says the annual cost of renting the 6,000 square metres of office space in the building, which has a helipad on the roof, would be $162,000 a year, or £88,698 at yesterday’s exchange rate.

Earlier this year the Tory MP Crispin Blunt protested after it emerged that as a result of an internal mix-up three members of the Yesha Council, the umbrella organisation representing West Bank settlers, had been invited to the annual Queen’s Birthday Party given by the embassy.

The Foreign Office minister Kim Howells subsequently said the settlers’ presence was “not helpful” and pledged that no further such invitations would be issued.

The British embassy said yesterday that an “internal process” was looking at a “number of options” for relocating, but that no decisions had been taken. It added: “The Government has made its position on settlements very clear; we believe that settlements contravene international law and are a significant impediment to progress on the peace process. Should we decide to relocate the embassy, we will make clear the intended location once a decision has been reached.”

Africa Israel was not available for comment yesterday because of the weekly Sabbath holiday.