Call on Dubai to boycott Leviev’s stores over Israel settlements
New York human rights activists, and representatives of the West Bank Palestinian villages of Bil’in and Jayyous called on the government and the people of the United Arab Emirates to boycott the jewelry stores of Israeli billionaire and diamond magnate Lev Leviev over his companies’ construction of Israeli settlements. According to a flurry of recent media reports, Leviev is opening jewelry stores in Dubai during 2008.
“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 jewelry stores in Dubai,” added Adalah-NY spokesperson Issa Ayoub. Adalah-NY has organized eight boycott protests outside Leviev’s new Madison Avenue jewelry store over the last five months.
In the last few days, media have 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 Jumeirah Palm Island. Leviev has already opened one store in Dubai in March, 2008 in the lobby of Al-Qasr Hotel on Madinat Jumeirah.
Leviev’s 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 organization which has used deceit and strong-arm tactics to secure Israeli-occupied Palestinian land for settlements in villages like Bil’in and Jayyous.
Israeli settlements directly violate international law according to the UN, all major human rights organizations and the International Court of Justice’s 2004 advisory opinion on Israel’s wall. The IJC’s opinion also said that states are responsible for ensuring that Israel complies with international law.
Abdullah Abu-Rahme from Bil’in and Sharif Omar from Jayyous explained, “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 organizations (www.bds-palestine.net) 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.”
In Angola, Leviev works closely with the repressive Dos Santos regime to mine and sell the country’s diamonds, and he employs the private security firm K&P Mineira, which has been accused of torturing, sexually abusing and even murdering Angolans. According to the non-profit watchdog group Partnership Africa Canada, around 10% of the diamonds sold from Angola, including some of Leviev’s, fail to comply with the Kimberley Process which was created to end the trade in “blood diamonds.”
Source: Adalah NY
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6 Comments on “Call on Dubai to boycott Leviev’s stores over Israel settlements”
Sabbah — will the people of Dubai care?
I hope they will. Emirati people were always one of the biggest supporters for Palestinians, I have no doubt they will care if they know what is going on their city.
A business publication in Dubai has picked it up:
http://www.bi-me.com/main.php?id=19354&t=1&c=33&cg=4
Update: Someone is in some hot water!! Someone needs to go back and find the source of Leviev even thinking he has a license to open up shop if what is being reported below is fact (I don’t mean that he wasn’t going to open up shop, but that he never had a license, joint venture coverup perhaps?)
Following boycott call, Dubai says Leviev has no license for planned jewelry stores
April 30th, 2008 | Posted in Press Releases, Boycott & sanctions
Adalah-NY Contact: info@adalahny.org, http://www.adalahny.org
New York, NY, April 30 – In a sudden reversal, just 16 days after Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev publicly announced plans to open two new jewelry stores in Dubai this year, a high-level Dubai government official said that Leviev had no trade license to open a store in the Emirate. The report today in Dubai’s Gulf News, followed a flurry of media coverage of the April 18 call by Palestinians and New York activists for Dubai to boycott Leviev’s businesses over his companies’ settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Issa Ayoub, a spokesperson for Adalah-NY, an activist group leading a boycott campaign against Leviev, commented, “We’re gratified that, by refusing trade licenses for Leviev, Dubai has joined the growing movement to boycott Leviev’s companies due to their violations of international law and human rights abuses in Palestine and Angola. We repeat our call to the people of Dubai to stop entirely the sale of Leviev’s jewelry, even in local stores. Israeli businesses like Leviev’s need to be held accountable for their role oppressing the Palestinian people.”
An April 30th article, “Israeli has no trade license to open shop in Dubai”, by Abbas Al Luwati in Dubai’s Gulf News (archive.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10209492.html) quoted Ali Ebrahim, Deputy Director General for Executive Affairs in Dubai saying, “We are aware of these reports and have not granted a trade licence to any business of this name. If such an application does come to us we will deal with it accordingly.” According to the article, “Ebrahim said Israeli citizens were not allowed to operate in Dubai, adding that “precautionary measures” are taken to ensure that they do not. He added that Israeli businesses would be prevented from operating in Dubai through non-Israeli partners.”
Read the rest here
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/04/30/following-boycott-call-dubai-says-leviev-has-no-license-for-planned-jewelry-stores/
“Ebrahim said Israeli citizens were not allowed to operate in Dubai, adding that “precautionary measures” are taken to ensure that they do not. He added that Israeli businesses would be prevented from operating in Dubai through non-Israeli partners.”
Leviev’s jewelry has been selling in Levant Jewellry store at Al Qasr hotel since the store opened March 18th. The owner of that store is
Mr. Arif Ben Khadra, seen in a picture here standing next to Mr. Thierry Chaunu, President and chief operating officer of LEVIEV.
http://www.ameinfo.com/151331.html
In an interview on Go Dubai, Chaunu states the following:
• Why did you choose Levant to work with?
o Mr. Aref and Levant are very dynamic and savvy experts. They are excellent BUSINESS PARTNERS. It was much better for us to partner with someone who knows the market and can guide us in this region.
• How do you like Dubai?
o I pinch myself every time I come here. It is truly a remarkable place, the construction, the diversity of people is breath taking. The smiles you get, the welcome… that’s how the world should be
http://www.godubai.com/citylife/press_release_page.asp?id=15165&search=
“a high-level Dubai government official said that Leviev had no trade license to open a store in the Emirate”
I don’t think Mr. Aref ever got the memo either, because if you go on the website for Levant Jewellry then go to “our boutiques” it clearly gives as an upcoming boutique, “Leviev Boutique” in Dubai Mall.
http://www.levantjewellery.com/index.swf
Apologies for commenting again, but something else I just read makes this whole situation even MORE sickening. According to this article, http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10209492.html Mr. Aref who is Leviev’s business partner/agent according to all proof given and Mr. Thierry Chaunu’ statement, Mr. Aref is Moroccan-PALESTINIAN.
“Leviev’s agent, Bin Khadra, first brought Leviev diamonds to the UAE in March this year with the opening of his store Levant Jewellery in the Mina Al Salam hotel. He told Gulf News that the franchise in the Dubai Mall and the Atlantis Hotel would be wholly owned by him.
Asked if he was aware of the activities of Lev Leviev’s companies in the West Bank, Bin Khadra said that he had heard of Leviev’s practices in the West Bank but had seen no proof of the allegations, adding that they were not a major concern because “such questions are not asked in the diamond business”.
Dubai, he said, was an apolitical and international city that needed global brands such as Leviev. “What we have learned here is that you don’t have to talk about politics or religion if you’re doing business,” he said.
Bin Khadra added that he knows of other major Dubai-based jewellers who were interested in bringing Leviev to the UAE. “If we hadn’t brought Leviev, someone else would have”.
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Blood diamond proof, “such questions are not asked in the diamond business”. He’s PALESTINIAN for Christ’s sake, if anyone reading here is still pissed off at Leviev (as they should be) I think your anger should take a sharp turn towards this ASSHOLE that thinks making money like THIS is more important than his own people!
The question is, does the UAE prohibit business dealings with Israel or not because according to Ali Ebrahim, Deputy Director General for Executive Affairs in Dubai they do.
WRONG! April 19, 2008 El Al’s chairman has been invited to a travel conference in Dubai
http://www.prlog.org/10065513-travel-conference-brings-israel-and-dubai-closer.html
AND Israeli diamonds have been selling well in Dubai with it’s Israeli representative being hosted very nicely there since 2006!
Israeli diamond traders find favor in Arab Dubai:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2006/10/25/israeli_diamond_traders_find_favor_in_arab_dubai/
Israeli Diamond Exchange president Avi Paz says diamonds and hospitality flow freely between Israel and Dubai.
“We came there, they came here. There is no problem at all,” Paz said in Tel Aviv. “I wish that wherever I go, they’ll host me like they hosted me in Dubai.”
Officially at least, the Emirates still enforces some aspects of the Arab League’s boycott with Israel, although a government official said most restrictions were dropped long ago.
There are no direct flights to Israel and visitors traveling on Israeli passports are rarely allowed to enter”
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The operative word being RARELY. Dubai is now the fifth largest diamond importer in the world according to that article.
“Ebrahim said Israeli citizens were not allowed to operate in Dubai, adding that “precautionary measures” are taken to ensure that they do not.”
MALARKEY Mr. Ebrahim!
There’s enough lying and other UNETHICAL behavior going on in this whole affair from EVERYONE to make you PUKE!