New Yorkers, Palestinians call on Dubai to boycott Leviev jewellery stores

Author: Justin Smith

Source: BI-ME

Published: 20 April 2008

UAE. New York human rights activists, and representatives of the West Bank Palestinian villages of Bil'in and Jayyous have called on the government and the people of the United Arab Emirates to boycott the jewellery stores of Israeli billionaire and diamond magnate Lev Leviev over allegations of his companies involvement in construction of Israeli settlements. According to a flurry of recent media reports, Leviev is opening jewelry stores in Dubai during 2008.

The following statement was issued by the lobby group Adalahny-NY, Coalition for Justice in the Middle East.

"We call on the government and people of the United Arab Emirates to join the growing international campaign to boycott Lev Leviev's companies due to their construction of Israeli colonial settlements, and their human rights violations in Angola," declared Daniel Lang-Levitsky of Jews Against the Occupation-NYC.

"A major Israeli violator of Palestinian rights and international law should not be opening jewellery stores in Dubai," added Adalah-NY spokesperson Issa Ayoub. Adalah-NY has organised eight boycott protests outside Leviev's new Madison Avenue jewellery store over the last five months.

A few days ago BI-ME has reported that Lev Leviev Diamonds will open two stores in Dubai this year. In the fourth quarter of 2008, construction will begin on a store to be located in the Burj Dubai Mall. The second will open in September in the new Atlantis Hotel on The Palm Jumeirah. Leviev has already opened one store in Dubai in March, 2008 in the lobby of Al-Qasr Hotel on Madinat Jumeirah.

Leviev's opponents say that his company Leader is building the settlement of Zufim on the land of the West Bank village of Jayyous. The company Danya Cebus, a subsidiary of Leviev's Africa-Israel, has also built Israeli settlements on the land of the village of Bil'in, and has built homes in Maale Adumim and Har Homa on Jabal Abu Ghneim, encircling and cutting off East Jerusalem from the West Bank. Israel is building its wall to the East of all these settlements, with the aim of annexing them to Israel. Leviev also donates to the Land Redemption Fund, an Israeli settler organisation.

Israeli settlements directly violate international law according to the UN, all major human rights organisations and the International Court of Justice's 2004 advisory opinion on Israel's wall. The Court's opinion also said that individual states are responsible for ensuring that Israel complies with international law.

Abdullah Abu-Rahme from Bil'in and Sharif Omar from Jayyous said in the prepared statement: "Leviev's companies are destroying the olive groves and farms that have sustained our villages for centuries, and are profiting from human rights abuses."

The growing international movement to boycott Israel has developed in response to the 2005 Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) call by 171 Palestinian civil society organisations asking for "people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to" apartheid South Africa in order to end "Israel's persistent violations

of international law," and "colonial and discriminatory policies."

All diamonds sold in the UAE are required to adhere the strict requirements of the Kimberley Process, related to the control in the sale of so-called 'Blood Diamonds'.