April 21, 2009

The Council on Ethics
Norwegian Government Pension Fund
Government of Norway

Dear Members of the Council on Ethics,

It is with great dismay that we learned that Norway, a strong supporter of human rights and peace in the Middle East, has invested its citizens’ pensions in a company, Lev Leviev’s Africa-Israel, that is building Israeli settlements on our village’s land, and is destroying our olive groves and any hope for justice and peace in Palestine. Our village of Bil’in has carried out a four year campaign of creative, nonviolent protests against the construction of Israel’s wall and the Israeli settlement of Mattityahu East on our village’s land, Last Friday, one of our residents, 31 year-old Bassem Abu Rahma, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers during a nonviolent protest in Bil’in. We have also endured countless beatings from Israeli soldiers as a result of our protests, as well as bullets, teargas, invasions and arrests. We are sure that the people of Norway do not want to support the seizure of our farmland, and violence against our community. Therefore, we call on the government and people of Norway to take decisive steps, as the government of the United Kingdom has recently done, to end all business relationships with Lev Leviev due his companies’ construction of settlements.