Activists say Leviev violates UK positions against Israeli settlements
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
London, September 18, 2008 – Responding to media and Foreign Office statements, human rights advocates today called on the government of the United Kingdom to rule out renting space for the new UK embassy in Tel Aviv from Israeli billionaire and new London resident Lev Leviev. The companies of the controversial diamond and real estate magnate build Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory in violation of international law. The British government officially opposes settlement construction.
The respected Israeli financial journal Globes reported on July 29 that the UK would rent its new Tel Aviv Embassy from Leviev’s company Africa Israel. This was followed by a September 9 article in the Guardian’s Comment Is Free detailing Leviev’s extensive involvement in Israeli settlement construction, and then a letter-writing campaign to the Foreign Office launched by eight groups in the UK and worldwide. The Foreign Office has responded to letters with an email saying that, “no decision on a site has been taken and no leases have been signed,” and “settlements contravene international law.”
The author of the Guardian article, Abe Hayeem, a founder of the UK group Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP), commented, "Emails from the Foreign Office saying that no lease has been signed are not enough. The UK government now needs to explicitly say it will not rent space for our embassy from Leviev. Since the UK government has not taken steps to stop Israel's illegal and accelerating settlement construction, it can at least send a clear message opposing these breaches of international law and the Annapolis agreements by not providing further boosts to the coffers of Lev Leviev and other developers who build on stolen land in the Occupied Territories." Oxfam and UNICEF have both recently stated that they will not accept donations from Leviev due to his companies' construction of Israeli settlements.
The eight groups that issued a call for letters to the UK's Foreign Office demanding that the government not rent from Leviev included UK-based Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine, Palestine Solidarity Campaign and War on Want; the West Bank villages of Bil'in and Jayyous, where Leviev's companies have been building settlements; the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, which represents over 170 Palestinian civil society groups; and US-based Adalah-NY and Jews Against the Occupation.
Letters to the Foreign Office have poured in from around the world. Ex-BBC Middle East Correspondent Tim Llewelyn wrote to the Foreign Office that, "If this goes ahead it makes a nonsense of Gordon Brown's pledges to the Palestinian Prime Minister, Abu Mazen." Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, chaired by Daniel Machover, warned that renting space from Leviev's company, "would be tantamount to condoning Israel's settlement building, supporting clear violations of international law, in some cases amounting to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention" and "in violation of the third party obligations" outlined in the International Court of Justice's Advisory Opinion of 9 July 2004. US academic Norman Finkelstein said that, "It would be regrettable if the British government elects to collaborate with someone involved in on-going war crimes."
When the Israeli financial journal Globes broke the story on July 29, it reported that "the embassy plans to rent three floors in the Kirya Tower from Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. at $27 per square meter per month." Globes again noted UK plans to rent from Leviev in a September 9 story that recapped Hayeem's article in the Guardian's Comment Is Free.