August 1, 2008

Land grabs and lawsuits: A Palestinian village sues two Montreal-based companies over the construction of a West Bank settlement

Originally published in the Montreal Mirror

by JESSE ROSENFELD

Accused of war crimes for their involvement with Israeli settlement
expansion, two Quebec-registered companies are being sued in Canada by
the occupied West Bank Palestinian village of Bi'lin.

Toronto lawyer Mark Arnold filed a claim in Quebec Superior Court on
behalf of the village against Green Park and Green Mount International
three weeks ago. The case is part of a combined Palestinian, Canadian
and Israeli effort to halt expansion of the Modi'in Illit settlement.

The sister construction companies are being charged with violating
both Canadian and international law, while also acting as agents of
the Israeli state due to their construction of residences in
Mattityahu East, a hilltop adjacent Modi'in Illit's main settlement
block. Calling the case unprecedented, Arnold cites the Fourth Geneva
Convention and Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

"They are Canadian companies and subject to Canadian and international
law," he says, contending Green Park International and Green Mount
International are aiding the transfer of settlers to an occupied
territory, resulting in a war crime and violating both these acts and
the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Although officially based in Montreal, there is little information
about the two companies, which also have offices in Panama City. Their
Montreal office is a commercial photo studio and Arnold believes their
official director is only a name on paper.

Tracing ownership
Quebec government records say Green Park and Green Mount are
controlled by Lexinter Management, whose majority shareholder, F.T.S.
Worldwide Corp, is a Panama-based company historically involved in the
Democratic Republic of Congo's diamond trade.

However, according to a spokesperson from Green Park and Green Mount's
business partners Danya Cebus construction company, the two companies
are owned by wealthy American businessman Shaya Boymelgreen. Danya
Cebus received a subcontract for the Mattityahu East project in 2004
and the spokesperson says the two companies are part of Boymelgreen's
business conglomerate.

"Green Park and Green Mount—as part of the Boymelgreen
group—subcontracted to Danya Cebus, with the [Israeli] government's
approval in awarding contracts," says a Danya Cebus spokesperson.
"Boymelgreen was the group that won the contract and Danya Cebus is
acting as the subcontractor."

A subsidiary of Africa Israel Investments LTD, Danya Cebus is owned by
Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev. Leviev's relationship with UNICEF was
severed in June over the involvement of Danya Cebus in West Bank
settlement construction.

The village is seeking a permanent injunction against Green Park and
Green Mount construction at Modi'in Illit and $2-million in punitive
damages. Bi'lin is also demanding that the company restore the land to
its pre-construction state while also footing the bill for it.

"We want to show that people who come and profit from Palestinian
suffering will lose," says village council secretary Mohammed Khatib.
He adds that Bi'lin is fighting to retrieve its land, not win monetary
settlement for it.

Khatib says Modi'in Illit sits on lands belonging to Bi'lin, and
Mattityahu East—sitting atop land confiscated by Israel's Separation
Wall—is the closest part of the settlement to the village residences.
The villagers have been waging both a popular and legal struggle
against the wall and expanding settlement for three years, winning an
Israeli High Court decision in November 2007 ordering the Wall's
rerouting.

Nonetheless, it has yet to be moved and an Israeli military alternate
route proposed on July 10 has been roundly rejected by the village.
The newly proposed route will maintain most of the confiscated
farmland, including Mattityahu East.

The politics of confiscation
Khatib contends that legally targeting the companies in Canada is
essential because the issues are being ignored by the Israeli courts.
"The legal system in Israel is not giving us the minimum of our
right," he says. "The settlement and the wall will turn Bi'lin into an
enclave surrounded on three sides by the wall and settlement."

The Israeli lawyer representing Bi'lin, Michael Sfard, sees the
Canadian case as an important warning sign to the building sector
about the consequences for involvement in Israeli settlement
construction. "The impact is huge," he says. "Foreign and Israeli
corporations abroad should beware and think twice about embarking on
settlement projects."

Sfard argues that this claim was not originally taken to the Israeli
courts because the Israeli courts have a precedent for referring to
land confiscations for settlement expansion as a political issue and
refusing to deal with them. If the case is successful for Bi'lin,
Sfard intends to bring the ruling to the Israeli courts, asking the
Israeli judiciary to enforce the Canadian court's ruling against Green
Park and Green Mount.

Neither Green Park, Green Mount nor Boymelgreen responded to requests
for comment.

Jesse Rosenfeld is a freelance journalist based in Ramallah.

MORE ON THIS STORY. Toronto Star - A world away, Palestinian seeks justice (June 2009) .

Report on hearings in Montreal: Montreal Gazette - Builders should face lawsuit for war crimes, lawyer argues (June 26, 2009)

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Originally published in http://www.montrealmirror.com/2008/073108/news2.html

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