Human rights activists protest at New York store owned by settler leader

Monday December 10, 2007 21:59 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

A group of boisterous protesters confronted wealthy holiday shoppers along Madison Avenue in New York City this weekend, holding a rally in front of Lev Leviev's New York jewelry store.

Protest outside Leviev's shop

Leviev is Israel's richest man, having made much of his fortune in the diamond trade during apartheid-era South Africa.  He spends a large amount of money on settlement expansion in the Palestinian territories in contravention of international law.

Around sixty protesters filled the street in front of Leviev's new shop, as Harvard professor and pro-Israel fanatic Alan Dershowitz defiantly shopped in Leviev's shop and waved the bag in front of the protesters.  The protesters booed at Dershowitz and told him he was contributing to the theft of Palestinian land by shopping at Leviev's store.  They shouted, "Alan, Alan, you can't hide, your support for Apartheid."

Since the store opened on November 13th, three protests have been held outside, including one during the gala opening that caught attendees off-guard.

The New York protests mark an important change in pro-Palestine protests, as they are specifically targeting the economics of the Israeli apartheid policies, rather than the political side.  The protests have been extremely creative, with music, Palestinian traditional dancing, and gift bags filled with Palestinian soil handed out to shoppers, with a note saying "Every purchase made from Leviev's takes another handful of Palestinian soil."

The gift bags are a reference to the millions of dollars Leviev has invested in the construction of illegal settlements on Palestinian land.  Leviev's company Danya Cebus is directly involved in construction in the Har Homa settlement near Bethlehem, which has come under fire this week by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as further construction there violates the commitments made just a week ago in Annapolis.

This weekend's protest was held by the group Adalah-NCY, which calls for human rights for all Palestinian people. 

international | non-violent action | news report saed at imemc dot org