To commemorate her magazine’s 15th anniversary, US megastar talk show host and social justice philanthropist Oprah Winfrey glammed out wearing pearl-shaped 69 carat Leviev diamond earrings on the cover of the May 2015 edition of O, the Oprah Magazine. Leviev is owned by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev and Adalah-NY: The New York campaign for the Boycott of Israel emailed a letter to executives at O and the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) on May 29th detailing the involvement of Leviev’s companies’ to notoriously brutal human rights abuses in Angola and the thousands of illegal Israeli settlement homes built on Palestinian land by another of his companies, in violation of international law. Shortly thereafter the communications director at OWN, Chelsea Hettrick, told an Adalah-NY representative that Winfrey was reviewing the letter, and that her team would respond soon. They didn’t. Hettrick has since failed to reply to further calls and emails from Adalah-NY.
The letter, representing nine organizations and 34 individuals from the US, Palestine, Israel and South Africa, referenced Winfrey’s worldwide commitment to racial, economic, and social justice and alerted her that her recent choice of product placement “threaten to undermine those principles”. Calling on Winfrey to publicly distance herself from Leviev’s companies, the letter explains:
We fear that this publicity conveys to your peers and to the public your implicit endorsement and promotion of Leviev’s companies.
That was over a month ago. Yesterday July 1, Adalah-NY issued a press release publicizing the letter. Listing others who have severed ties with Leviev’s companies in the past due to their human rights abuses, including UNICEF, Oxfam America, British and Norwegian governments, and New Zealand’s pension fund, Adalah-NY made a public call for more signers to the now open letter to Oprah Winfrey. Rapidly the open letter picked multiple organizational endorsements and has garnered over a 1000 signatures in a few hours. With each endorsement, copies are automatically sent to Oprah and her management.
The press release cited Abdallah Abu Rahmah, Coordinator of Bil’in’s Popular Committee, who signed the letter:
Leviev’s companies have built hundreds of illegal Israeli settlements on the land of West Bank Palestinian villages like Bil’in, destroying our farms and olive groves. From Palestine, we call on Ms. Winfrey to renounce Leviev’s companies because they have trampled on our basic human rights.
And Bill Fletcher Jr., Host of The Global African on Telesur-English:
Silence, in the face of this evidence of injustice represents acceptance, if not support for the intolerable.
More from Adalah-NY press release:
The letter lauded Ms. Winfrey’s “commitment to racial, social and economic justice in the United States and worldwide,” but noted that the Leviev diamonds she wore may well have been from Angola. Security companies employed by Leviev in Angola have been credibly accused by one of Angola’s most courageous human rights activists, Rafael Marques de Morais, of committing brutal human rights abuses. In 2014, Mr. Marques de Morais documented in a video another recent case of brutality by the Angolan private security company working for Leviev. Other Leviev companies have built thousands of Israeli settlement homes on Palestinian land in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in violation of international law. Leviev’s diamond and construction companies all fall under the Leviev Group of Companies (LGC).
Other letter signers included Palestinian and Israeli groups supporting a boycott of Israel, the Dream Defenders, CODEPINK Women for Peace, a South African Jewish group, and a number of African American professors and activists. Adalah-NY also issued a public call today for more online signers to the letter.
Oprah Winfrey appears to be the first major celebrity to wear Leviev since diamonds embarrassing incidents involving celebrities wearing tainted Leviev diamonds in 2008. The photo of Ms. Winfrey wearing Leviev’s diamonds was picked up by E!Online, and Huffington Post.
Andrew Kadi, Co-Chair of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, commented, “Lev Leviev is profiting off of human rights violations in Angola, and built Israeli settlements with the support of a military. Given all of this, I can’t imagine that Oprah Winfrey wouldn’t distance herself from his company after wearing his diamonds.” Rebecca Vilkomerson of Jewish Voice for Peace explained, “By distancing herself from Leviev’s companies’ human rights abuses in Angola and Palestine, Ms. Winfrey would be making the ethical choice, and would be supported by people of conscience, including many within the Jewish community.”
Read the full text of the letter and add your signature here.
O Oprah~ your image and all you’ve worked for is going kaput.
Those dangling diamonds represent the blood and terror and slavery and theft of millions.
I appreciate the tone of Adalah’s letter:
“Because we greatly appreciate your commitment to racial, social and economic justice in the United States and worldwide, we are writing to alert you to an instance where your inadvertent actions threaten to undermine those principles. On the cover of the May issue of O, The Oprah Magazine you were featured wearing earrings from Leviev. We’re confident that you were not aware…
Now that you are aware of this information, we urge you to take steps to ensure that your peers and the public are not left with the understanding that you have endorsed and lent your credibility to Leviev’s companies.”
She is now aware. The lack of a forthcoming and full- throated denouncement of Leviev will not be “inadvertent”.
I have to say that I am more than a little surprised (skeptical) that Oprah was completely ignorant of Leviev’s terrible human rights record, etc. …
Thank you very much for this meticulously referenced and well- written article and call to action, Annie.
P.S. Adalah- NY’s graphic of ‘O’ is stunning!
“…the communications director at OWN, Chelsea Hettrick, told an Adalah-NY representative that Winfrey was reviewing the letter, and that her team would respond soon. They didn’t. Hettrick has since failed to reply to further calls and emails from Adalah-NY.”
If Winfrey thinks she got into hot water pissing off the beef industry just let her be perceived as supporting BDS. OMG Stand With Us and AIPAC will marshal all their forces to take her down a peg. And if you think that there aren’t plenty of people around who resent a mega rich, influential black woman then I’ve got some swamp land outside Detroit to sell ya.
Anyway I suspect that Winfrey and her people will try to ignore the letter, hoping it will go away. I hope it doesn’t and she is forced to “come out” and take a stand, one way or the other, on one of the biggest human rights issue of the day. It’s not like her paycheck depends upon it.
It is unfortunate that so many Americans are unaware about the background of the products they wear/use, or maybe they do not care. Oprah who has been an advocate for many charitable and good causes, cannot ignore the fact that the expensive stones she wears has an ugly and sad story behind it, and that helpless human beings suffer because of their expensive tastes.
What Israel has done, and will keep doing, has made me turn away from, and avoid buying, products made in Israel.
Leviev is also a major contributor to the Chabad Lubavitch which, following the Gaza massacre of 2014, distributed pamphlets to the people of Gaza explaining that “those who don’t keep the seven Noahide Laws have no right to exist in this world.”
Along with a lot of other Judeo-supremacist language, the pamphlet threatened all of the people of Gaza with death unless they expel Hamas.
This group should not be dismissed or downplayed as it so often is. It has a number of other multi-billionaire patrons and demonstrates serious leverage with Western politicians. The beliefs and behaviors of the Chabad stand in stark contrast to the polished, secular images of its mega-wealthy backers.
I’m so tired of entertainment folks allowing themselves to be pimped so easily. She’s worth I think 3 billion dollars so isn’t hurting for chump change. I thought she had more integrity than that and certainly would check anything thoroughly before appearing to endorse products.