A Mother’s Day protester holds vigil outside Leviev’s jewelry store
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
NEW YORK — Mother’s Day 2009 was marked by a pair of protests: the Granny Peace Brigade and CodePINK held a Mother’s Day for Peace march and Adalah NY visited Lev Leviev – the mother of all diamond magnates.
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
On Saturday, May 9, 40 members of Adalah NY — a group supporting the Palestinian right of return — held a picket outside Lev Leviev’s jewelry store on the Upper East Side. Adalah distributed a comic book format history of how Leviev made his fortune. The comic calls diamond merchant Leviev “the world’s 210th richest man” and accuses him of buying up property in New York, displacing “low income families and industrial jobs to build luxury condos”. According to Adalah, Leviev is responsible for “unsafe work sites, low wages and shoddy construction” in New York. In addition, Leviev is alleged to be responsible for brutality in Angola where he owns diamond mines. Adalah also argues that Leviev enriched himself through business dealings with Apartheid South Africa and is currently using his wealth to build “Jewish only housing” on Palestinian lands in Israel.
A comic produced by Adalah NY
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
The protesters outside Leviev’s storefront called on onlookers to boycott the store as part of a larger campaign of “boycott, divestment and sanctions” (BDS) designed to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians living in the occupied territories.
A member of the Granny Peace Brigade
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
On Sunday — Mother’s Day — the Granny Peace Brigade and Codepink marched in Manhattan, distributing fliers that told the story of the origins of the holiday. The marchers’ literature noted that Mother’s Day was not originally a “Hallmark holiday” — it was the result of a proclamation by Julia Ward Howe. Howe, who authored Battle Hymn of the Republic, issued a call in 1870 to stop the carnage produced by war. In her “Mother’s Day for Peace” proclamation, Howe urged disarmament arguing that “the sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
A flier explaining the origins of Mother’s Day
