Dubai is known as both a wonderland of exuberance and a stopping point for tourists, travelers and international businessmen. Unimpressed by its display of wealth and luxury, activists are rallying against Dubai’s decision to allow an Israeli businessman and active builder of Israeli settlements to set up shop there. He promotes Palestinian displacement. In a way, they charge, now Dubai dollars will too.
Lev Leviev Diamonds, a major diamond dealer and competitor to the DeBeers cartel, is planning to open two stores in Dubai this year. Leviev is the target of a growing international campaign by human rights activists for his instrumental role building Israeli settlements and supporting the settler movement in Israel.
One of the stores is slated for the most prestigious section of the Burj Dubai Mall, the world’s biggest mall, which will be under the world’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai Tower. Construction of this store will begin later this year.
Israel’s Globes business journal reported that Leviev never concealed his business activity in the United Arab Emirates. He also claimed that his Israeli identity is no secret and has never caused any issues for his business dealings.
Leviev, who was born in Uzbekistan during the Soviet Union’s reign, got into the diamond business after he was a soldier in the Israeli military.
His support for Israeli settlements has caused hardship for Palestinians. The activists detailed Leviev’s involvement. His construction companies are building the settlement of Zufim on the land of the Palestinian West Bank village of Jayyous. Another of his subsidiaries built Israeli settlements that impinge on the land of the village of Bil’in.
His companies also promote Israel’s strategic placement of settlements to isolate Jerusalem from the West Bank. It constructed homes in Maale Adumim and Har Homa on Jabal Abu Ghneim, part of the ring of settlements separating East Jerusalem from the West Bank. Israel’s apartheid wall falls to the east of all these settlements, clearly with the aim of annexing them to Israel.
Leviev is a known supporter of the Land Redemption Fund, an Israeli settler organization aimed at appropriating Palestinian land for settlements, especially land belonging to the villages of Bil’in and Jayyous.
Israeli settlements directly violate international law, which forbids the acquisition of territory by force and the settlement of occupied land by citizens of the occupying country. According to the U.N., all major human rights organizations and the International Court of Justice’s 2004 advisory opinion on Israel’s wall, Israel’s activities in the Palestinian territories are illegal.
The movement is led by Palestinians in the Jayyous and Bil’in, activists in the United States and Dubai. Those in Dubai are calling for a boycott of Leviev jewelry.
Two of the Palestinians in the areas hit hardest by Leviev’s activities, Abdullah Abu-Rahme and Sharif Omar, oppose Leviev because his companies are “destroying the olive groves and farms that have sustained our villages for centuries, and are profiting from human rights abuses.”
Jewish and Palestinian activists in New York have been waging a campaign against Leviev for nearly six months. In December they staged creative protests at the Leviev store in New York, and have organized eight demonstrations there so far.
In a statement, Jews Against the Occupation-NYC, called on Dubai “to join the growing international campaign to boycott Lev Leviev’s companies.”
It also cited Leviev’s operations in Angola and cozy relationship with the authoritarian ruler there. Leviev denies the charges, saying the diamond dealings in Angola are legitimate. Some Angolans resent the money he donated to helping Jews leave the former Soviet Union to move to Israel. They claim he needs to do more to help Angolans.
Adalah-NY spokesperson Issa Ayoub said “A major Israeli violator of Palestinian rights and international law should not be opening jewelry stores in Dubai.”
Some in Dubai agree.
Dalia, an activist in Dubai, is working to expose Leviev’s operations. She is spreading the word and organizing others to assist in these efforts. She told The Arab American News, “I am working with a number of people interested here in order to organize this more.”
She claims the media in Dubai have not responded.
Dalia thinks that Arab Americans can play a bigger role in the campaign. “Most people here or in the Arab countries believe that Arab Americans do not care or have any interest” in Arab causes.
Dubai is known for its relatively open economy, flourishing business and lavish hotels and malls. For many in Palestine, its association with Leviev will stand for something else — the theft of their land.
For more information visit www.adalahny.org.
Will Youmans is a writer for The Arab American News.
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