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

(To sign on to the letter write to: info@adalahny.org)

(Or sign on to Jewish Voice for Peace's letter supporting the boycott call)

Mothers Leafleting
Mothers outside of Leviev-NY 5/10/08

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.

 (Click here for a high resolution PDF of the Mother's Day card we are distributing in front of Leviev NY)

(Click here for pictures)

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

  1. Afifeh Abed, Birzeit, Palestine
  2. Aseel Rateb Abu Rahmeh, Bil'in, Palestine
  3. Sana Abu Rahmeh, Bil'in, Palestine
  4. Paula Abrams-Hourani, Vienna, Austria
  5. Hiba Abu Salem, Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem, Palestine
  6. Micaela Adame, Sevilla, Spain
  7. Barbara Agostini, New York, NY, USA
  8. Dalal Akil, Beirut, Lebanon
  9. Sulafa Al-Bassam, New York, USA
  10. Widad Albassam, Chicago, USA
  11. May Al-Issa, London, UK
  12. Nazhat Al-Issa, London , UK
  13. Dalia J.Al-Khadra, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  14. Naomi Allen, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  15. Orly Almi, Tel Aviv, Israel
  16. Kifah Alqam, Bethlehem, Palestine
  17. Mouna Anderson, Lexington, MA, USA
  18. Fayza Arar, Beit Omar, Hebron, Palestine
  19. Violeta Aranda, Sevilla, Spain
  20. Salwa Ashira, Bethlehem, Palestine
  21. Layali Azar, Brooksville, Florida, USA
  22. Arwa Aziz, New York, NY, USA
  23. Maie Ayoub Vonkhol, NY, USA
  24. Donna Baranski-Walker, Redwood City, CA
  25. Julia Barnett Toronto, Canada
  26. Najah Barsoum, NY, USA
  27. Georgina Bedrossian, NY, USA
  28. Greta Berlin. Le-Bar-sur-Loup, France
  29. Marcia Bernstein, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  30. Didi Beydoun, NY, USA
  31. Judy Bjorkman, Owego, NY, USA
  32. Susan Blackwell, Birmingham, USA
  33. Monique Blin, Paris, France
  34. Elizabeth Block, Toronto, Canada
  35. Rima Bordacosh, NY, USA
  36. Leila Bordacosh, NY, USA
  37. Claude Boucherot, Paris, France
  38. Lila Braine, New York NY, USA
  39. Joyce Bressler, Nyack, New York, USA
  40. Sandra Butler, Oakland, California USA
  41. Allison L. Brown, New York, NY, USA
  42. Mary P. Buchwald, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  43. Elly Bulkin, Montclair, NJ, USA
  44. Madeleine Bullock, Canberra, Australia
  45. Paola Canarutto, Italy
  46. Maya Chami, Beirut, Lebanon
  47. Kathleen Christison, Santa Fe, NM, USA
  48. Jacinta Clarke, Auckland, New Zealand
  49. Ruth Clark, Edinburgh, Scotland
  50. Pauline Coffman, Oak Park, IL, USA
  51. Elinor Cohen, New York, NY, USA
  52. Marisa Consolata Kemper, Cairo, Egypt
  53. Celia Cruz, Lansing, Michigan, USA
  54. Fatima Daana, Ramallah, Palestine
  55. Shadia Obeid Daraghmeh, Tubas, Palestine
  56. Ron and Maria De Stefano, New Jersey, USA
  57. Afifa Dirani, Beirut, Lebanon
  58. Nancy du Plessis, New York, NY, USA
  59. Noelle Elia, New Rochelle, NY, USA
  60. Rania Elias, Jerusalem, Palestine
  61. Hedy Epstein, St. Louis, MO, USA
  62. Dalia Fakhouri, Oberlin, Ohio, USA
  63. Simone Fattal, Paris, France
  64. Lily Farhoud, Menton, France
  65. Eileen Fleming, New York, NY, USA
  66. Françoise Foliot, Paris, France
  67. Elisabeth Franken, Bruxelles, Belgium
  68. Genevieve Cora Fraser, Massachusetts USA
  69. Carol Gable, Mamaroneck, NY, USA
  70. Racheli Gai, Tucson, Arizona, USA
  71. Marcey Gayer, New York, USA
  72. Carolyn Gelenter, London, UK
  73. Emmaia Gelman, Bronx, New York, USA
  74. Felice Gelman, Tarrytown, NY, USA
  75. Irene Gendzier, Boston, USA
  76. Cybele Ghossein, Chicago, USA
  77. Mirene Ghossein, New Rochelle, NY, USA
  78. Yara Ghossein, NY, USA
  79. Begoña Gil, Sevilla, Spain
  80. Joan Glickman, New Rochelle, NY, USA
  81. Neta Golan, Ramallah, Palestine
  82. Susan Goldstein, Toronto, Canada
  83. Sherry Gorelick, NY, USA
  84. Rosario Granado, Sevilla, Spain
  85. Judy Greenspan, Berkeley, CA, USA
  86. Suzy Habashi, NY, USA
  87. Nimat Hafez Barazangi, Ithaca, NY, USA
  88. Fouzia Hakim, MA, USA
  89. Eman Hamad, Clifton, NJ, USA (originally from Lifta, Palestine)
  90. Lubna Hamad, New York, NY, USA
  91. Jawaher Hammad, Auja, Palestine
  92. Rusayla Hammad, Auja, Palestine
  93. Enas Hammad, CA, USA
  94. Touran Hamidi, Westbury New York, USA
  95. Yasim Hamidi, Westbury, New York, USA
  96. Nancy Harb Almendras, Wiesbaden, Germany
  97. Louis de Hautefeuille, Paris, France
  98. Janice Hayden, Concord, MA, USA
  99. Jacqueline Hazzi, NY, USA
  100. Sarah Heaton, London, UK
  101. Jenny Heinz, New York, NY, USA
  102. Maryse Helal, Cairo, Egypt
  103. Jeannette Herzberg, Raanana, Israel
  104. Pat Hesslein, New York, NY, USA
  105. Majida Hilmi, NY, USA
  106. Susanne Hoder - Rhode Isalnd, USA
  107. Carol Horwitz, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  108. Suzanne Hoyt, NY, USA
  109. Houda El-Hourra, NY, USA
  110. Katherine-Hughes-Fraitekh, Albequerque, New Mexico, USA
  111. Deborah Hyams, London, UK
  112. Suhair Issa, Bethlehem, Palestine
  113. Nadia Issaoui, Algiers, Algeria
  114. Virginia Ivarra, Washington, USA
  115. Ghada Jiha, New York, NY, USA
  116. Naila Jirmanus, Boston, MA, USA
  117. Jacqueline Jraissaty, Beirut, Lebanon
  118. Yael Oren Kahn, London, UK
  119. Nur Kaoukji, London, UK
  120. Lorraine Katen, Mammaroneck, NY, USA
  121. Nazik Kazimi, Newton, MA, USA
  122. Nada Khader, Chappaqua, NY, USA
  123. Sukain Khalawi, Bethlehem, Palestine
  124. May Khalil, Clifton, NJ, USA (originally from Lifta, Palestine)
  125. Abla Khoury, Beirut, Lebanon
  126. Najla Khoury, Beirut, Lebanon
  127. Georgia Kingsley Guida, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  128. Odile Lepelletier, New Rochelle, NY, USA
  129. Ruth Lessuck, New York, NY, USA
  130. Rebekah Levin, Chicago, IL, USA
  131. Therese Liebmann, Brussels, Belgium
  132. A.Loikow, Washington, DC, USA
  133. Denise Love, Grandville, MI, USA
  134. Rayan Majed, Beirut, Lebanon
  135. Sahr Mandour,Beirut, Lebanon
  136. Aleksandra Martinovic, Varazdin, Croatia
  137. May Makki, NY, USA
  138. Joan Mallory, Mammaroneck, NY, USA
  139. Maria Manrique, Sevilla, Spain
  140. Miriam Margolyes, London, UK
  141. Laurel Marx, NY, USA
  142. Susan Masters, NY, USA
  143. Wendy May, Australia
  144. Kate MacQueen, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  145. Eileen Measey, Leamington Spa, England
  146. Hilda Meers, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
  147. Jeannine Melly, NY, USA
  148. Gail Miller, Woodstock, NY, USA
  149. Viola Miller-Ferjentsik, Westchester, NY, USA
  150. Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament
  151. Dorinda Moreno, Central Coast, CA, USA
  152. Susanne Moses, Tel Aviv, Israel
  153. Hijar Mousa, Bethlehem, Palestine
  154. Suzanne Mousset, Bruxelles, Belgium
  155. Elana Nachman, Oakland, CA, USA
  156. Dorothy Naor, Herzliah, Israel
  157. Denise Nassar, NY, USA
  158. Inaam Nassar, Austin, Texas, USA
  159. Hiam Nassar, Austin, Texas, USA
  160. Joanna Nassar, Beirut,Lebanon
  161. Rouba Nassar, Austin, Texas, USA
  162. Ibtissam Nassar, Queens, NY, USA
  163. Arwa Nasser, Weschester, NY, USA
  164. Elena Nasereddin, New York, New York, U.S.A.
  165. Diana Neslen, Ilford Essex, United Kingdom
  166. Lisa Nessan, Oakland, CA, USA
  167. Marlene Newesri, New York, NY, USA
  168. Orna Neumann, London, UK
  169. Siham Nuseibeh, Kuwait City, Kuwait
  170. Josiane Olff-Nathan, Strasbourg, France
  171. Fatima Otifat, Ramallah, Palestine
  172. Nujood Otifat, Auja, Palestine
  173. Tharwa Otifat, Ramallah, Palestine
  174. Alejandra del Palacio, Mexico
  175. Karin Pally, Santa Monica, CA, USA
  176. Odile Pascalides, Paris, France
  177. Tamar Pelleg-Sryck, Tel Aviv, Israel
  178. Ann F. Perry, VA, USA
  179. Ann Petter, New York, NY, USA
  180. Alison Phillips, Pitlochry, Scotland
  181. Jesse Ponce de Leon, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
  182. Gillian Potter, Cairo Egypt
  183. Lysander Puccio, New York, NY, USA
  184. Cherryl Qamar, Woodstock, NY, USA
  185. Dena Qaddumi, London, UK
  186. Gianna Quach, NY, USA
  187. Marie-Madeleine Raoult, Montréal, Canada
  188. Fahima Rabie, Birzeit, Palestine
  189. Yvette Raby, NY, USA
  190. Michelle Raccagni, NY, USA
  191. Susan Ravitz, Easton, PA, USA
  192. Miriam M. Reik, New York, NY, USA
  193. Mary Rizzo San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy
  194. Joanne Robinson, Yonkers, NY, USA
  195. Roberta Robinson, NY, USA
  196. Phyllis Rodriguez, White Plains, NY, USA
  197. Eleanor Roffman, Cambridge, MA, USA
  198. Constancia Dinky Romilly, New York, NY, USA
  199. Suzanne Ross, New York, NY, USA
  200. Edith Rubinstein, Brussels, Belgium
  201. Meredith Ryan, Westchester, NY, USA
  202. Renee Sader, Beirut, Lebanon
  203. Claude-Marie Safar, Paris, France
  204. Mariam Said, NY, USA
  205. Nidal Said, NY, USA
  206. Liliane Saltiel, New York, USA
  207. Sumayyah Samaha, NY, USA
  208. Majeda Rafek Nabhan Samhan, Bil'in, Palestine
  209. Annmarie Sauer, Antwerp, Belgium
  210. Doreen Shapiro, Brooklyn, NY, USA
  211. Lee Sharkey, Farmington, Maine, USA
  212. Ann Shirazi, New York, NY, USA
  213. Karam Shuman, Chicago, USA
  214. Roopa Singh, NY, USA
  215. Nancy Ann Siracusa, New York, NY, USA
  216. Sheila Slater, New York, NY, USA
  217. Nayla Sleiman, Cal, USA
  218. Eustacia Smith, Bronx, NY, USA
  219. Kathy Sommers, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
  220. Vicky Steinitz, Cambridge, MA
  221. Beth Stephens, Montclair, NJ, USA
  222. Sallye Steiner Bowyer, Santa Cruz, California, USA
  223. Alexis Stern, New York, NY, USA
  224. Meg Swanson, Los Barriles, BCS, Mexico
  225. Diana Takieddine, Washington, USA
  226. Laila Taqatqa, Beit Fajjar, Palestine
  227. Ruth Tenne, London, UK
  228. Janet Thebaud Gillmar, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
  229. Leila Tourny, Beirut, Lebanon
  230. Nicole Trad, Paris, France
  231. Yvette Van Hauwe, Brussels, Belgium
  232. Miriam A. Volkmann, Berlin, Germany
  233. Carol Weinshenker, New York, NY, USA
  234. Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, London, UK
  235. Rev. Gretchen Winkler, Chicago, IL, USA
  236. Devra Wiseman, Leatherhead, UK
  237. Rachel Wofsy, New York, NY, USA
  238. Ann Wright, London, UK
  239. Suha Younis, Ara, Occupied 48 Palestine
  240. Alia Yunis, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  241. Nida Zahran, Bethlehem, Palestine
  242. Dorothy Zellner, New York NY, USA

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