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Mothers call for Mother's Day boycott of Israeli settlement-buil

JVP is partnering with Adalah-NY on their Leviev campaign. Lev Leviev is a businessman who owns a Madison Avenue jewelry store in New York. He has helped perpatuate the Israel-Palestine conflict by funding the settlements in the West Bank and using his considerable financial power to wrest more and more land from besieged Palestinians. His companies have helped construct illegal Israeli settlements, especially in settlements of Zufim, Mattityahu East, Maale Adumim, and Har Homa.

Please join this call by Israeli and Palestinian mothers asking for a boycott of Leviev's New York business for Mother's Day. For more information about the hardships caused by these illegal settlements and the expropriation of Palestinian land, read the testimonies below the petition.








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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.

Leviev is a very dangerous force not only in Israel. His real estate development projects have been roundly criticized for shoddy building, harsh treatment of workers and dangerous buildings and work sites. His diamond business dealings with Angola enable further human rights violations. Caught trying to sell Burmese “blood diamonds” to a Times of London investigative reporter, Leviev was told by the European Union to stop trade with Burma or risk prosecution.  And his efforts in Israel-Palestine are directed against all efforts for peace.


0-25 of 225 signatures
Number Date Name Location
225 May 07, 2009 ,
224 May 06, 2009 ,
223 May 05, 2009 Mary MacArthur West Hurley, NY
222 May 03, 2009 rosalie yelen huntington station, NY
221 April 29, 2009 ,
220 April 29, 2009 ,
219 April 28, 2009 maria de bernard , NY
218 April 28, 2009 Carole Ashley New York, NY
217 June 12, 2008 Susan Miller Phila, PA
216 June 11, 2008 Helen Banks Cornwall, UK
215 May 16, 2008 Robert Petersen Cambridge, MA
214 May 14, 2008 Ryan Danzinger Arlington Heights, IL
213 May 14, 2008 ,
212 May 13, 2008 Nina Narvestad Norway, CA
211 May 12, 2008 Mary K Miller Botha Long Beach, NY
210 May 12, 2008 doris rausch Columbia, MD
209 May 12, 2008 Safia Naqi College Station, TX
208 May 11, 2008 Diane Schaffer Santa Fe, NM
207 May 11, 2008 ,
206 May 11, 2008 ,
205 May 11, 2008 ,
204 May 11, 2008 ,
203 May 11, 2008 ,
202 May 11, 2008 ,
201 May 11, 2008 Ina Ayliffe Dallas, TX
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