Settlement Financer in Dubai
By Mohammad Sabry IOL Staff
A decision to allow Israeli billionaire
and diamond magnate Lev Leviev,
notorious for funding settlement
construction in the occupied
Palestinian lands, to open jewelry stores
in Dubai has shocked pro-Palestine
advocates.
"We want people to put pressure on
Lev Leviev to stop funding settlement
building in the Palestinian lands,"
Issa Ayoub, spokesman for the
Coalition for Justice in the Middle East
(Adalah-NY), told IslamOnline.net over
the phone from New York.
Lev Leviev Diamonds has won approval
from the government of Dubai to open two jewelry stores this year.
One of the stores will in the Burj Dubai Mall, the world's biggest mall,
under the world's tallest building.
The other will be located in the lobby of the new Atlantis hotel resort on
the Jumeirah Palm Island, currently scheduled to open in September 2008.
The diamond magnate, who has served in the Israeli army, already has
a concession in Levant Jewellers which opened in the lobby of
al-Qasr Hotel in the Madinat Jumeirah area of Dubai in March.
Leviev, ranked 210 among the world's richest people, is a major
financer of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian lands.
His company Danya Cebus, a subsidiary of Africa-Israel,
subcontracted the building of Mattityahu East settlement
on the land of the Palestinian village of Bil'in.
It is also build housing units in Har Homa and Maale Adumim
settlements, cutting the holy city of Al-Quds
(occupied East Jerusalem) from the West Bank.
Leviev’s company Leader is also building the settlement of
Zufim on the land of the West Bank village of Jayyous.
The Israeli billionaire is also a major contributor to the Land
Redemption Fund, a Jewish group accused of intimidation and
strong-arms tactics to secure Palestinian lands for settlement
construction.
There are more than 164 Jewish settlements in the West Bank,
eating up more than 40 percent of the occupied territory.
The international community considers all Jewish settlements
on occupied Palestinian land illegal.
Boycott
Adalah-NY, a grassroots alliance of concerned organizations and
individuals in New York formed to demand an immediate,
unconditional, and permanent end to US and US-sponsored
Israeli aggressions, is championing a boycott campaign.
"We want people to boycott Leviev to push him stop giving
money to right-wing Jewish groups," said Ayoub.
Abdullah Abu-Rahma from the Palestinian village of Bil'in said
allowing the Israeli billionaire to open stores in Dubai, a world’s
hub of Jewelry trading, would mean more support to the
Jewish settlements.
"Leviev’s companies are destroying the olive groves and farms
that have sustained our villages for centuries, and are profiting
from human rights abuses," he told IOL over the phone.
"We want all people and governments to boycott this billionaire."
Jewish and Palestinian activists have been staging rallies outside a
Leviev-owned jewelry store in New York City to protest his support
to settlement building.
The Jews Against the Occupation-NYC has urged Dubai authorities
to join an international campaign to boycott Leviev's companies.
Protests have also been staged in the Palestinian
villages of Bil'in and Jayyous.
"We say to all Arabs in the UAE that allowing this billionaire to
open stores in their country would mean that they are helping
him confiscate our lands to build settlements," said Abu-Rahma.
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