UNICEF has rejected all partnerships with, or financial support from Russian/Israeli Billionaire, Lev Leviev, due to human rights violations tied to him and his companies.

 UNICEF Rejects Support From Israeli Billionaire Known for Constructing Settlements on Palestinian Lands

A senior advisor to UNICEF’s Director said in a letter today that UNICEF will reject all partnerships with, or financial support from Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev. Leviev had previously provided UNICEF with support by sponsoring fundraising events in France. Leviev’s past support for UNICEF is featured in a number of places on his company’s website (www.leviev.com).

UNICEF’s rejection of Leviev’s support followed meetings with Adalah-NY, letters from organizations and Palestinian communities advocating a boycott of Leviev’s companies, and a visit by UNICEF officials to Jayyous, one of the Palestinian communities where a Leviev company is building Israeli settlements. Leviev’s diamond-mining companies in Angola have also been accused of serious human rights abuses.

Abdullah Abu Rahme, a community leader from the West Bank village of Bil’in, said, “We welcome UNICEF’s decision to hold one of the companies that has been building Mattityahu East settlement accountable for attempting to destroy our community. Our village has engaged in a three year nonviolent campaign to save our land, and an international boycott is an important complement to our weekly protests. This is a victory, but we need many more like it.” Leviev’s companies have also recently built homes in the settlements of Ma’ale Adumim and Har Homa, both of which cut off East Jerusalem from the West Bank.

Tzipi Livni,Israeli Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council.

Last Monday, 16 June, in a meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council attended by the Israeli Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni and European foreign ministers, an upgrade in the relations between Israel and the European Union was unanimously approved. These enhanced measures of cooperation, not incidentally, coincide with Israel’s 60^th birthday and demonstrate increasingly closer economic, political and social links between the EU and Israel.    

The announcement follows months of hard negotiating and bargaining by Foreign Minister Livni, but, according to one European diplomat, EU opinion prior to the meeting was that the 27 member states of the EU had simply not “had enough time” to come to an agreement (Reuters, 11 June 2008). Monday’s announcement for increased relations concerns three areas: diplomatic cooperation; Israel’s participation in European plans and agencies; and an examination of possible Israeli integration into the European Single Market.

Such advances in political and economic relations between Israel and the EU are strongly opposed by the Palestinian Authority. On 27 May 2008, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad wrote to the European Union heads of state, urging them not to upgrade their ties with Israel unless construction and expansion of settlements and the Separation Wall was immediately halted. 

In conjunction with Fayyad, not all Europeans were in favor of the upgrading of Israel’s relationship. Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament, and member of a 14 MEP ad hoc delegation belonging to different political parties that visited the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) from 31 May to 2 June, states that “we [the delegation] strongly feel that without serious signs of good faith translated into tangible improvements on the ground, the time is not yet right to upgrade EU-Israel relations.”

Slovenian Foreign Minister, Dimitrij Rupel with Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, at a joint press conference of the EU-Israel Association Council held in Luxembourg.

A coalition of development, humanitarian, peace and human rights organisations [1] expressed their intense disappointment at the absence of a strong emphasis on improving conditions on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory and on human rights commitments in the EU’s declaration on relations with Israel. The declaration presented at the EU-Israel Association Council in Luxembourg yesterday opens the way to upgrading mutual ties but fails to effectively link it to ending the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and to ensuring respect for human rights throughout the occupied Palestinian territory and in Israel itself.

The coalition calls on the EU to take a clear and committed stance on all human rights issues and to give much greater priority to improving conditions on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory during the upcoming negotiations process in which the details of the upgrade will be hammered out.

Adam Leach, Regional Manager for Oxfam International, said: "As Israel’s pre-eminent trade partner, the EU must use the upcoming upgrade negotiations process to ensure Israel ends the ever-worsening Gaza blockade, lifts movement restrictions and halts settlement expansion in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Closer ties with Israel must be accompanied by tangible improvements on the ground. The security of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians must be the top priority driving EU policy towards both sides.”

Kamel Jendoubi, President of the Euromediterranean Human Rights Network, added: "The EU must be consistent in upholding its human rights principles in its foreign relations, and Israel cannot be an exception to this rule. A weak or ambiguous EU stance on human rights in relations with Israel sends the wrong message also to other countries in the EU Neighbourhood, who could see it as a license to ignore EU engagement with regard to their own human rights records."

The coalition further emphasises that the EU should use the upgrading process to insist on Israel’s respect for international humanitarian and human rights law. EU must also prevent any extension of the benefits of mutual cooperation to Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Members of the Hamas armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in the Gaza Strip.

Despite concerted efforts by the Quartet and Israel to undermine Hamas rule following the January 2006 Palestinian national elections, the political and military position of Hamas one year after Fatah’s failed attempt to overthrow this elected government appears even stronger.

While opinion polls point to declining popularity among the Palestinian public for Hamas, the Hamas-led government in Gaza is perceived by Palestinians as effective on civil matters, capable of resisting Israeli attacks and of forcing Israel to the negotiations table.  

Conversely, the public image of the government appointed by Palestinian President Abu Mazen is deteriorating, as its performance on civil and political matters is viewed as mediocre at best. Israel’s refusal to implement negotiated agreements seriously detracts from the political image of Abu Mazen, as well as eats away at the credibility of Salam Fayyad’s government on issues not directly related to the conflict, such as corruption, civil security and economy.