"We want people to put pressure on Lev Leviev to stop funding settlement building in the Palestinian lands," Issa Ayoub, spokesman for the Coalition for Justice in the Middle East (Adalah-NY), told IslamOnline.net over the phone from New York.

Lev Leviev Diamonds has won approval from the government of Dubai to open two jewelry stores this year.

One of the stores will in the Burj Dubai Mall, the world's biggest mall, under the world's tallest building.

The other will be located in the lobby of the new Atlantis hotel resort on the Jumeirah Palm Island, currently scheduled to open in September 2008.

The diamond magnate, who has served in the Israeli army, already has a concession in Levant Jewellers which opened in the lobby of al-Qasr Hotel in the Madinat Jumeirah area of Dubai in March.

Leviev, ranked 210 among the world's richest people, is a major financer of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian lands.

His company Danya Cebus, a subsidiary of Africa-Israel, subcontracted the building of Mattityahu East settlement on the land of the Palestinian village of Bil'in.

It is also build housing units in Har Homa and Maale Adumim settlements, cutting the holy city of Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) from the West Bank.

Leviev’s company Leader is also building the settlement of Zufim on the land of the West Bank village of Jayyous.

The Israeli billionaire is also a major contributor to the Land Redemption Fund, a Jewish group accused of intimidation and strong-arms tactics to secure Palestinian lands for settlement construction.

There are more than 164 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, eating up more than 40 percent of the occupied territory.

The international community considers all Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land illegal.

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