Worldwide Activism
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty: Boymelgreen out of Toronto, Brooklyn and Palestine!
Worldwide Activism, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, November 18th, 2008

On November 15, as part of the International Week Against the Apartheid Wall, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) erected a reinforced cement wall in front of the Toronto building '50 On the Park' at 50 Portland Street. This building is owned by wealthy real estate developer Leviev-Boymelgreen, which has projects in Toronto and Brooklyn, and which also builds illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Boymelgreen is expanding the illegal settlement of Mod'in Illit that is built on the land of the Palestinian village of Bil'in. 60% of Bil'in's land has been stolen by the Occupation in the expansion of settlements and by the building of the separation Wall. Bil'in is a village that is being strangled – made into an open air prison surrounded by settlements, Occupation forces and military, and enclosed by the Apartheid Wall. This is a system of colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people which has gone on for 60 years.

In Toronto and New York, Boymelgreen builds luxury condos in the place of real affordable housing, displacing poor and low-income people from our neighbourhoods. On top of this, Boymelgreen is an employer that has unjust and unfair labour practices, underpays its workers, while forcing them to work in dangerous working conditions, and denies the right of workers to organize in unions.

Today, OCAP sent a strong message to Boymelgreen to get out of Toronto, Brooklyn and Palestine. OCAP, along with the rest of the Palestinian solidarity movement, holds Boymelgreen responsible for supporting Israel's ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people and as such, the movement will struggle against corporations like this one from building condos in Toronto.