Land Developer BDS (Leviev)

Valentine's Day protest at Leviev NYC on Feb 6, 2016
Third time we shut down the store. Our Valentine's Day protest at Leviev NYC on Feb 6, 2016

Press Coverage

New Era

Govt Intervention Needed in LLD Saga

Abstract: 

Key critics such as New York-based Adalah-NY Coalition of Coalition for Justice in the Middle East in cooperation with the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign National Committee, a wide coalition of the largest Palestinian mass organisations, trade unions, networks and organisations, have been campaigning against Lev Leviev's companies.

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Document

Support Striking Namibian Workers at Lev Leviev Diamonds!

Support Striking Namibian Workers at Lev Leviev Diamonds!
Protest Firing Threats, Abusive Managers

Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East,
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU),
Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign National Committee (BNC)
July 5, 2008

Management at Lev Leviev Diamond Polishing Company (LLD) in Windhoek, Namibia is threatening to fire 153 diamond polishers who have been on strike since June 19th protesting abusive managers as well as overdue job appraisals, promotions, wages and outstanding overtime pay. The company, owned by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, whose companies are already a target of global condemnation for building Israeli settlements in the West Bank in violation of international law, has suspended the 153 strikers and is threatening to begin disciplinary hearings to fire them, claiming the strike is illegal.

Growing global solidarity reaches from Palestine to Southern Africa and the US targeting Lev Leviev’s human rights abuses and war crimes.

Adalah-NY, COSATU and the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) urge unions, supporters of human rights, and all other social justice groups to send messages of protest to LLD management, demanding that the strikers not be fired and that their demands be met (addresses and phone numbers to send messages to are below).

Namibia:

In Namibia, the workers started their labor action on June 19, setting up a round-the-clock protest camp a few hundred yards from the factory gates. Among the workers’ demands is the removal of LLD Namibia’s general manager Mike Nesongano. Workers have documented a range of hostile actions by Nesongano, including use of abusive language, disregard of labor law, threatening workers, unfair dismissals, unequal treatment and having a demoralizing attitude towards his workforce. The employees also accuse Nesongano of poor administration and favoring European administrators brought in by Leviev. They also point to intimidation by the company’s lawyer at meetings between workers and management.

Diamond polishers at LLD earn Namibian $450 (US$56) a month, after deductions. This corresponds to less than two U.S. dollars a day, the figure most commonly used by international agencies to define the global poverty line.

LLD has a history of exploiting its workers. In 2006 the company, which only offered its workers temporary status, tried to force workers to sign contracts stating that they would not be paid until they reached certain production quotas. Only the workers’ struggle forced them to nullify the contracts.

LLD's Managing Director, K. Kapwanga, refuses engagement with the workers on fair terms. He has publicly threatened that "[t]he relevant employees will be issued with notices to appear before a disciplinary hearing committee, upon which if found guilty they may face severe penalties and possible dismissal." Enraged by the threat, workers have announced that they will boycott the disciplinary hearings, and have threatened to disrupt the operations of the company should the company fail to heed their demands.

Palestine:

Lev Leviev got his start by supporting Apartheid in South Africa, and reaping profits from that regime's diamond industry. Today his support is directed at Israeli apartheid where the profits are no less handsome. His construction companies build settlements that steal water and key agricultural areas from Palestinians, carve up Palestinian areas of the West Bank into isolated enclaves, and cut off Jerusalem from the West Bank. His most recent settlement construction projects - Mattityahu East in Modi’in Illit, Zufim, Maale Adumim and Har Homa - are central to Israel’s efforts to seize control of and annex strategic areas of the West Bank.

The people of Jayyous, the Palestinian town on whose lands the Zufim settlement is built, have addressed the world calling for a boycott of Lev Leviev because his settlement activities on the properties annexed by Israel's Apartheid Wall destroy their land and livelihoods. As one Jayyous farmer has put it: “85% of our people were farmers working in their fields or tending cattle. Today only 45 out of 3800 people can reach their lands and provide for the livelihoods of their families. Out of the 8,050 people from Jayyous, 3,250 already live abroad. Those of us who have stayed must struggle daily to defend our lands and rights.”

Adalah-NY, the Coalition for Justice in the Middle East (www.adalahny.org), in cooperation with the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign National Committee (BNC), a wide coalition of the largest Palestinian mass organizations, trade unions, networks and organizations, has been campaigning against Lev Leviev’s companies for their building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank in violation of international law, as well as his abuses of workers and communities from Angola to New York City. The BNC is the body set up by Palestinian civil society to coordinate the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign launched in July 2005 with the initial endorsement of over 170 Palestinian organizations. One fruit of the campaign initiated by Adalah-NY has been UNICEF’s announcement on June 20th it would no longer accept donations from Leviev, which followed a similar decision by Oxfam International.

Angola:

In Angola, New York Magazine reported in 2007 that “A security company contracted by Leviev was accused this year by a local human-rights monitor of participating in practices of ‘humiliation, whipping, torture, sexual abuse, and, in some cases, assassinations.’”

New York:

At the Apthorp building in Manhattan, 50% owned by Leviev's company Africa-Israel, 88 tenants protected by rent-regulation laws are threatened with losing their apartments as Leviev and the smaller shareholders convert it into an expensive condominium building.

Adalah-NY, the BNC and COSATU urge unions, supporters of human rights for Palestinians, and all other social justice groups to send messages of protest to LLD management, demanding that the strikers not be fired and that their demands be met (addresses and phone numbers to send messages to are below).

Send messages of support for the strikers at LLD Polishing Company in Namibia to:
K. Kapwanga, Managing Director, LLD
Tel.: +26 461 386 150
Fax: +26461 249 253
Cell: +264811 247 249

Send copies of your messages to:
Mineworkers Union of Namibia at mun@mweb.com.na
and to Adalah-NY at: info@adalahny.org
For more information, contact Adalah-NY at: info@adalahny.org

Notes:

1. Statement of the Mine Workers Union of Namibia:

Secretary General Joseph Hengari of the strikers’ union, the Mine Workers Union of Namibia (MUN), told the press: "We propose that before discussing the appraisals, promotions and basic salary issues, the company respond to all allegations levelled against Nesongano."

Mathew Mtembi, Chairman of the NUM local at the plant, told the New Era: “’We are here because these people did not solve our problems. We want feedback on our demands,’ referring to the 16-point agenda they gave to management a day before the commencement of the strike.” Mtembi added that if the suspensions are withdrawn they will return to work, “but will not go anywhere near their duty stations if the company does not solve their problems, amongst others better labour conditions, allowances and better salaries.”

2. Statement by COSATU on July 4 says in its initial paragraph

“The Congress of South African Trade Unions pledges its support for the 153 diamond polishers employed by the Lev Leviev Diamond (LLD) Polishing Company in Windhoek, Namibia, who have been on strike since June 19th to protest abusive managers as well as job appraisals and promotions, wages and outstanding overtime.” (The Congress of South African Trade Unions was founded in 1985. Since then COSATU has been in the forefront of the struggle for democracy and workers' rights. Today it represents over two million workers.)

3. The BNC:

The BNC is a wide coalition of the largest Palestinian mass organizations, trade unions, networks and organizations, including:

  • Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine
  • General Union of Palestinian Workers
  • Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions
  • Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO)
  • Federation of Independent Trade Unions
  • Union of Arab Community Based Associations (ITTIJAH)
  • Palestine Right of Return Coalition
  • Occupied Palestine and Golan Heights Initiative
  • General Union of Palestinian Women
  • Union of Palestinian Farmers
  • Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (STW)
  • Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
  • National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba
  • Civic Coalition for the Defense of Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCDPRJ)

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Event

July 9 Demo: 4 years after the ICJ, bring Leviev to justice

On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice at the Hague ruled that Israeli settlements and the West Bank Wall illegally annex Palestinian land, violate Palestinian human rights and must be dismantled. In violation of the law, billionaire diamond merchant LEV LEVIEV and his sometime partner, SHAYA BOYMELGREEN, have used the Wall to grab more land to construct illegal Jewish-only housing worth hundreds of millions of dollars. At the same time, they are attempting to drive out families in New York so they can create more luxury condos.

Join protesters in the villages Leviev is stealing land from in the West Bank
and in New York on the fourth anniversary of the court's opinion.
Bring Leviev to justice!

Wednesday, July 9 2008 4:30pm - 6pm
700 Madison Ave., btw 62nd and 63rd

Boycott Leviev!

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Press Coverage

gulfnews

Arab League may blacklist Levant Jewellery stores

Abstract: 

The Arab League is considering blacklisting companies belonging to Israeli businessman Lev Leviev and that of his agent in the UAE, the pan-Arab body said just days after Unicef severed ties with the billionaire jeweller.

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Document

7/2/2008 Letter to Susan Sarandon

July 2, 2008

Open letter to Susan Sarandon:
Follow UNICEF’s lead and publicly cut ties with Lev Leviev

From: Adalah-NY; the West Bank villages of Bil’in and Jayyous; Jewish Voice for Peace; Defence for Children International-Palestine Section; The Steering Committee of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee; and The Coalition of Women for Peace, Israel

As seven diverse groups committed to justice, human rights and peace, and representing hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of people in the US, Palestine and Israel, we call on you as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, to follow the lead of UNICEF which told Reuters on June 20th that it was cutting all ties with Israeli billionaire and diamond mogul Lev Leviev. UNICEF took this action due to Leviev’s companies’ construction of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian Territory. In a June 19 letter to Adalah-NY, Chris De Bono, senior communications advisor to UNICEF’s Executive Director, explained: "Yesterday we confirmed that UNICEF has concluded that it will not consider partnerships - direct or indirect - with Mr. Lev Leviev or any of his corporate entities, and will not accept financial or other support that we know is from him or his corporate entities. The concerned parts of the UNICEF family, including our national committees, have been advised of this."

Like UNICEF, which did not know until we informed them, we understand that when you attended the November 13, 2007 gala opening of Leviev’s Madison Avenue jewelry store, as Adalah-NY protested outside, you were unaware of Leviev’s record of human rights abuses in Palestine, Angola and beyond. However, as a popular and respected human rights advocate and a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, not publicly severing ties with Leviev has sent and will continue to send a message to the world that you support Leviev's highly unethical business activities which result in grave human rights abuses in Palestine.

On December 7, 2007 your assistant Mark Edlitz informed Adalah-NY that you were exploring these issues. UNICEF’s public rebuke of Leviev, which follows Oxfam International’s similar announcement on January 11, 2008, now provides an appropriate opportunity for you, as a member of the UNICEF family, to set the record straight and once again stand courageously for human rights.

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Document

Gush Shalom Supports UNICEF on Decision to Cut Ties to Leviev

To
Ann M. Veneman,
Executive Director of UNICEF

Dear Madam,

On behalf of Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, I would like to express our full support for your decision not to accept any further donations from Mr. Lev Levayev.

The Africa-Israel Buliding Coproration, owned by Mr. Levayev, is deeply involved in construction at the West Bank settlement of Modín Illit/Mattityahu East, erected on lands of Bilín and several other Palestinian villages which were either confiscated outright, ¨purchased¨ in highly shady land deals, and/or cut off from their owners by the so- called "Separation Fence".

For the Africa-Israeli Corporation - and hence, its owner, Levayev - this was a highly lucrative real estate deal, in which it acquired land for next to nothing and sold to settlers the appartments built on this land for hundreds of millions of dollars. For the Palestinian villagers involved, this meant the loss of the sole means of livelihood to hundreds of families, many of them with five children and more, and of course a very severe reduction in the care which these families could provide to their children and the future possibilities open to these children.

Hence, to accept the donations of Levayev, derived at least in part from the profits of the Africa-Israeli Corporation, would have meant to be in effect complicit in robbing one group of children in one country and using the proceeds for the benefit of other children in other countries - a manifestly immoral act which UNICEF was bound to avoid by the most basic of moral imperatives. I am glad that UNICEF did indeed take that decision.

Yours,
Adam Keller
Spokesperson, Gush Shalom (The Israeli Peace Bloc)
 

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Press Coverage

The Jewish Chronicle

Palestinians push Unicef to boycott Leviev

Abstract: 

A Palestinian human-rights organisation, Adalah-NY, has convinced Unicef to reject further financial support from the billionaire diamonds entrepreneur Lev Leviev, whose construction company builds in Israeli settlements.

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Press Release

Press Release, JATO/NYC, JVC & ICAHD call on the ADL, 06/25/2008

Jews Against the Occupation/NYC (JATO), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)

For Immediate Release

US and Israeli Jews Support UNICEF's Decision to Cut Ties to Leviev
Call on Anti-Defamation League to Reject Donations from Human Rights Violators

June 25, 2008 – New York City - Jews Against the Occupation/NYC, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions fully support UNICEF's decision to reject funds from sources it does not regard as partners in the worthy endeavor of protecting and nurturing the world's children. Lev Leviev's ongoing and direct support for settlement building and land expropriation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories constitutes an explicit violation of Palestinians' human rights, undermines Palestinian families' livelihoods and thus threatens any viable and peaceful future for both Palestinian and Israeli children. Lev Leviev is no partner for UNICEF. Indeed, all those who support children and families and their fundamental right to security should reject Leviev for his direct involvement in crimes against Palestinians.

We are disturbed to see today's call by the Anti-Defamation League for UNICEF to resume a financial relationship with Lev Leviev. We hope that UNICEF will continue to reject funding from untoward sources and strongly disagree with the ADL's accusation that UNICEF is discriminatory. We challenge the ADL to defend Leviev's business dealings (settlement growth, land expropriation) as actions that improve the lives of all children. UNICEF's decision to cease accepting money from the man responsible for the construction of illegal Israeli settlements on the land of villages under military occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is nothing less than an assertion that human rights and international law are universal. As an organization which touts its commitment to securing "justice and fair treatment to all", the ADL should know better than to call for an exception to be made for Mr. Leviev.

Leviev, one of the richest men in Israel, has a long history of involvement in human rights abuses. He made his fortune doing business with the diamond mines of apartheid-era South Africa, and has continued his involvement with this bloodiest of trades in partnership with the Angolan government, which is presently attempting to expel the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights so it can more easily fix an election. Leviev is a longtime funder of the Land Redemption Fund, an arm of the Israeli far right settlers' movement Gush Emunim, known for its use of deceit and intimidation to illegally acquire the land of Palestinian villages, as well as a settlement builder himself. His Danya Cebus company has been active in Mattityahu East, Maale Adumim and Har Homa settlements, while another subsidiary, Leader, is building Zufim settlement. Residents of the villages whose land is being stolen to build the first and last of these, Bil'in and Jayyous, have reported new settlement expansion in process in the past month.

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