HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY: Mothers call for Mother's Day boycott of Israeli settlement-builder Leviev

please consider passing this on to any mothers
you know who might sign on this boycott call of
a big settlement builder's New York City jewelry

To sign on to the boycott call email: info@adalahny.org

Mothers call for Mother's Day boycott
of Israeli settlement-builder Leviev

Adalah-NY

M'azuza Abu Rahmeh, a mother from Bil'in, explains,:

"I hope that on this important day for mothers that no women
in the world will have to live through this type of experience and
that instead they will live with their families and homes, in
security and peace." Halima Husain, a mother from Jayyous, adds,
"I hope that free people around the world will boycott Israel's
occupation and will not support businesses of wealthy Israelis
like Leviev who is building the settlement of Zufim,
and that they will stand with us to lift this shadow and darkness that
hangs over the Palestinian people."

With our governments failing to act, the only way to end the
suffering of Palestinian mothers and their families is to boycott
Israeli companies like Leviev's that profit from the illegal
activities of land confiscation and settlement construction. No
diamond is worth the destruction of people's lives.
This Mother's Day support mothers like Halima Husain,
and M'azuza Abu Rahmeh from Bil'in, along with their children.
Boycott Leviev.

As mothers from New York City and from around the world, we stand
with Palestinian mothers from villages like Jayyous and Bil'in and
call on New Yorkers to boycott Lev Leviev's Madison Avenue jewelry
store every day, but especially on Mother's Day. Leviev is exploiting
this holiday in honor of mothers, the third biggest jewelry shopping
period annually in the US, to sell his jewelry, even as his companies
ruin the lives of mothers in Palestine.

Leviev's companies have built homes for Israelis in the settlements
of Zufim on the land of the West Bank village of Jayyous, Mattityahu
East on Bil'in's land, and homes in the Maale Adumim and Har Homa
settlements, which are cutting off Palestinian East Jerusalem from the
West Bank.

While all Israeli settlements violate international law and destroy
hopes for peace, Leviev's settlements also exact a heavy human toll on
mothers and families. Halima Husain, a mother of seven from Jayyous,
explains, "The settlement of Zufim was established directly on our
land which was planted with olive, almond and fig trees. We registered
complaints repeatedly with the Israelis with no results." Now Israel
has built its wall through Jayyous in order to annex 70% of the
village's farmland for Zufim's expansion. Villagers need Israeli
permits to pass through the wall and reach their farmland. Halima
continues, "I don't have a permit and my husband Hosni has been denied
a permit for 10 months. One of my children has been held for 14 months
in an Israeli prison and I haven't been able to visit him for three
months with the Israeli excuse of 'security reasons.' And now my
husband's income is insufficient to cover my son's university
education, the costs of my other son in prison and our household
expenses, all because we can't reach our land."

Halima's story is similar to many in Jayyous. The once-prosperous
farming village of 3,400 residents is impoverished because families
can't access their land. 70% of Jayyous' families are now in great
need of food aid. 103 out of a total of 195 students in grades 7-12
have dropped out of school because parents can't cover school
expenses. In 2002, before Israel began the wall's construction, 180
students from Jayyous were in universities. That number has now
dropped to 50.

In Bil'in, M'azuza Abu Rahmeh, a mother of five boys and four girls,
explains, "Our land was seized for the construction of Mattityahu East
settlement. And our olive trees were cut down during the construction
of the apartheid wall. These trees hold memories for each of my
children that are impossible to forget. This pushed us to confront the
bulldozers when they uprooted the trees during the wall's
construction." M'azuza and her children, including her 23 year-old son
Hamza, participated in Bil'in's three-year nonviolent community
campaign against the construction of the Mattityahu East and the
apartheid wall which was intended to annex the settlement to Israel.
M'azuza says that during the protests, "Hamza was gravely injured in
the head when he was hit with a rubber-coated steel bullet, and he
spent two weeks in the hospital. One month after he left the hospital
the Israeli military came to our house at night and, after sowing fear
in me and in my small children and turning our house upside down, they
arrested Hamza. I felt as if my heart had been ripped from my body. I
am pained when I remember our uprooted olive trees,
and Hamza's injury and arrest."

During more than 200 demonstrations aiming to
prevent the seizure of 50% of Bil'in's land, the Israeli military
has injured around 1,000 civilian protesters, including Israelis
and internationals, and arrested 50. Around 300 of those injured
and 13 of those jailed were children from Bil'in.

For more information on the campaign to
boycott Leviev's companies see: www.adalahny.org

To sign on to the boycott email: info@adalahny.org