Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel in New York City.

Shaya Boymelgreen and Lev Leviev:
destroying communities and violating laws in Palestine and New York City.

The information in these background documents regarding Leviev's companies was last updated in 2009. For more updated information please see Adalah-NY's press releases.

Israeli American real estate developer Shaya Boymelgreen and Israeli businessman Lev Leviev are building destructive projects in New York City and in the Occupied West Bank in Palestine. Leviev and Boymelgreen are building strategic settlements in the Occupied West Bank which violate international law and aim to ensure Israeli control over key areas in the West Bank, rendering peace between Israelis and Palestinians impossible. In Palestine and in New York City they are committing similar abuses: expelling low-income, local residents from their communities, violating laws, and exploiting laborers

Leviev, one of Israel’s wealthiest businessmen, is building the Mattityahu East settlement on the lands of the village of Bil’in with partner Shaya Boymelgreen, the Zufim settlement on the lands of the village of Jayyous, and the strategic West Bank settlements of Har Homa and Maale Adumim around Jerusalem which divide the northern West Bank from the Southern West Bank. In Bil’in and Jayyous, Boymelgreen and Leviev are building settlements on village land despite intensive nonviolent protest campaigns mounted by the two Palestinian villages against the construction.

Valentine's Protest at Leviev NYC

"A Diamond Is Forever" but Apartheid Has to End!

Join Adalah-NY in front of occupation-profiteer Lev Leviev's diamond store in NYC to demand Leviev stop taking Palestinians' land, rights, and lives!  

This Valentine's shopping season join us in supporting Palestinians as they shake off Leviev's practices of hate.      

There'll be parodies, signs, chanting. Featuring musical accompaniment by the Rude Mechanical Orchestra.

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New York activists protest Leviev’s diamond store for 9th consecutive year

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Leviev’s New York diamond store closes again on day of boycott protest

Protesters called on Taylor Swift to renounce Leviev

MEDIA CONTACT: [email protected]

New York, NY, December 21, 2015 – On Saturday, for the second year running, 50 New York human rights advocates held a celebratory protest in front of a closed Leviev diamond store on Madison Avenue on one of the biggest holiday shopping days. Days before the protest, staff working for Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev had insisted his store would be open, per their publicized business hours. The Leviev store was also mysteriously closed the day of the December 2014 anti-apartheid caroling protest. This is the ninth consecutive year New Yorkers have gathered in front of Leviev’s store singing holiday anti-apartheid carols critical of Leviev’s construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land and human rights abuses in the diamond industry in Angola.

The human rights protesters at Leviev's store also directed a new song at pop star Taylor Swift. They asked Swift to “join us, Taylor, we can shake, shake, shake” to the tune of Swift’s song “Shake It Off.” Swift was photographed wearing Leviev diamonds in September’s Vanity Fair. Adalah-NY emailed a letter from seven organizations to Swift’s publicist Tree Paine of Premium PR in September asking Swift to commit to never wear Leviev diamonds again. Swift and her team have not responded to the letter and repeated follow-up phone calls. In May 2015, Oprah Winfrey wore Leviev diamonds on the cover of O Magazine. To date, Oprah has not responded to a letter signed by over 5600 people and a visiting delegation asking her to renounce Leviev.

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Lyrics for "Shake it Off" (Lev style)

Your bling is not so great, from an apartheid state
That’s what Lev won’t say, mmm, that’s what Lev won’t say, mmm
His companies must go, his wages much too low
That’s what the people say, mmm, that's what the people say, mmm

Lev is abusing, but we’ve made him stop cruising
With our boycott we’re moving, for human rights, and we’re gonna do what’s right

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Seven organizations ask Taylor Swift to commit not to wear Leviev diamonds again

Ms. Taylor Swift
c/o Ms. Tree Paine & Ms. Dana Lobb
PREMIUM PR

September 29, 2015

Dear Ms. Swift,

You have deservedly earned recognition for lending your name and your financial resources to charitable efforts to help victims of bullying, survivors of environmental disasters, and others in need. In light of your support for humanitarian causes, we wish to call your attention to an instance where your inadvertent action threatens to undermine values you uphold. You are featured wearing diamonds from Leviev in two photos in the September issue of Vanity Fair. We are confident that if you were aware of Lev Leviev’s violations of human rights and international law, and unethical business practices in Palestine, Angola and Namibia, you would not tarnish your good name by associating yourself with his companies.

UNICEF, Oxfam America, the British and Norwegian governments and New Zealand’s pension fund are among many organizations that have severed ties with Leviev’s companies as a result of awareness-raising campaigns by activists about Leviev’s human rights abuses. Major Hollywood stars have also distanced themselves from Leviev. In 2008, the website of Leviev Diamonds featured photos of Salma Hayek, Halle Berry, Drew Barrymore, Brooke Shields, Andie MacDowell, Lucy Liu, Whitney Houston, Sharon Stone and others. However, after human rights activists spoke to and sent letters to representatives for these celebrities, some of these stars issued complaints to Leviev and the entire Celebrity section of his company’s website was taken down.

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Flyer from our "Ninth Annual Anti-Apartheid Holiday Caroling at Leviev"

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Photos from our "Ninth Annual Anti-Apartheid Holiday Caroling at Leviev"

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Songbook, Anti-Apartheid Holiday Caroling at Leviev's, 2015

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Ninth Annual Anti-Apartheid Holiday Caroling at Leviev

Join Adalah-NY’s critically acclaimed Anti-Apartheid Holiday Caroling Choir in front of occupation-profiteer Lev Leviev’s Madison Avenue diamond store.

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Oprah, Bon Jovi, and Other Celebrities Refuse to Bash Israel

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