NOTWITHSTANDING ONGOING press releases that Lev Leviev would be one of the speakers at the World Diamond Council meeting in Jerusalem last week, Leviev did not show up to the two-day event. Word went out that he had been held up in traffic in London and had missed his plane, but there are several daily flights to Israel from London, aside from which Leviev has his own private plane. Even if he had missed the first day of the conference, he should have been in Jerusalem for the second day - but he wasn't.

Festivities celebrating British Airways' 75th anniversary included a fashion show of hostess uniforms from the 1940s onward.
Photo: Courtesy Photo

Meanwhile, Africa Israel, the company he chairs and in which he has the controlling interest, is having trouble getting approval for the residential towers it wants to build in Jerusalem on the site of the old President Hotel because the plan infringes on land set aside for public use. Africa Israel may still reach a compromise with the city, but first it has to try to get the planned building area rezoned from hotel space to residential dwellings. There is currently a glut of building in Talbiya where the project is to be constructed, as well as in the adjacent Rehavia and Mamilla neighborhoods. Despite the relatively high prices for apartments in these complexes, in which the land more often belongs to the Church than to the contractor, many apartments are sold before the blueprints are translated into bricks and mortar.

License problems aside, Leviev has agreed to head a task force of Israel's business community that aims to lift Jerusalem out of the economic doldrums and transform it into a thriving economic force that will attract both local and foreign investment. Leviev acceded to a request from Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski who asked him to take on the chairmanship of Jerusalem's economic task force as a gift to the city on the 40th anniversary of its reunification. The formation of the task force was formally announced Monday night, when the leading lights of Israel's business community flocked to Jerusalem to celebrate Jerusalem Day at City of David.

AT ITS gala farewell dinner following two days of deliberations, the World Diamond Council honored Rory More O'Ferrall, director of public and corporate affairs at De Beers. Although he officially retired at the end of March, O'Ferrall said this was his final appearance as a De Beers employee, and he felt it was meaningful that the venue for the final appearance should be Jerusalem. O'Ferrall recalled that he'd first come to Israel in 1973 and had been charmed by the commitment and spirit of the Israeli people and the extraordinary entrepreneurship of the country's diamond industry. O'Ferrall, who was with De Beers for 36 years and chaired the company's conflict diamond committee, was a key figure in the creation of the WDC whose President Eli Izakoff spoke warmly about how active O'Ferrall had been behind the scenes in so many ways, and announced that although O'Ferrall was retiring, he would remain with the WDC as a De Beers representative. Because the WDC values O'Ferrall so highly, it decided this year to have only one honoree so as not to minimize the importance of the award, Izakoff said. O'Ferrall told his colleagues it was in their hands to ensure that the WDC speaks for all in the industry "with one united voice." O'Ferrall joined the De Beers Group in 1971 after six years of service in the British Army where he attained the rank of captain. He started as a diamond buyer, then was in sales and then part of the management committee moving steadily up in the ranks. In 1998, O'Ferrall joined the corporate communications department and was subsequently appointed director of public and corporate affairs. With the reorganization of the De Beers Group in 2004, he became director of external affairs.

THE CONTROVERSIAL residential plan in Jerusalem that was named after international prize-winning architect Moshe Safdie, even though he was responsible only for the architectural design and not for the selection of its eventual location may be revitalized. The plan was shelved following persistent large scale protests by nature lovers and people conscious of the damage such a large housing complex could cause to what is now a green environment. Rumor had it that Mayor Uri Lupolianski had taken the Safdie project off the city agenda because he was considering running for a second term and realized the vote value of complying with the environmentalists. However, Housing and Construction Minister Meir Sheetrit, who though he doesn't live in Jerusalem, and is therefore unlikely to be affected one way or the other, wants to put the project back on the agenda because he does not want the enormous resources that the government put into the potentiality of the project to go to waste.

ANOTHER VETERAN Jerusalem enterprise bites the dust. Over the last three or four years old, established Jerusalem enterprises that had been around for decades have been closing down or selling out. The latest casualty is the Ora Pharmacy on the corner of Hillel and King George Streets, which after 71 years in business, has sold out to the NewPharm chain. Until recently, NewPharm operated in shopping malls, but as part of its new business strategy has opened a subsidiary chain NewPharm Medical, which preserves the concept of small downtown and suburban pharmacies that deal more with medications and health products than with cosmetics and fragrances. The Ora Pharmacy was established in 1936 by pharmacist Tony Mar-Haim and her husband Yehezkiel. In 1980, the pharmacy and the ownership of the premises was taken over by Marianna Yardeni , who expanded its products and services. The management was subsequently taken over by a small group of young pharmacists although the premises remained in the Yardeni family, which is in favor of the NewPharm Medical concept, which preserves the Ora ambience while adding business features that a chain is much more equipped to do. NewPharm Medical currently operates five branches and expects the number to grow to 12 by the end of the year. The branches are in different parts of the country and as more links are added to the chain, NewPharm Medical will expand in all directions.