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By Sean Clinton
As members of the Kimberley Course of (KP) collect in plenary in Botswana this week the diamond trade is beneath stress to ban commerce in Russian diamonds that fund warfare crimes in Ukraine however not diamonds that fund warfare crimes in Palestine.
The double normal and hypocrisy of luxurious manufacturers may hardly be extra blatant contemplating the fast exodus of main jewelers from Moscow after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and their silence within the face of the escalating demise toll of Palestinian civilians and people resisting Israeli assaults and occupation of the West Financial institution and Gaza.
Though a press launch by the Kimberley Course of Civil Society Coalition makes quite a lot of necessary factors about income from diamonds, tough or polished, maiming ladies and kids, funding dispossession and occupation being labeled conflict-free the assertion cites Russia and stops wanting naming Israel however the parallels are there for everybody to see.
5 weeks after the invasion Ukrainian president Zelensky known as for sanctions on diamonds that fund the Russian occupation and warfare crimes.
After a long time of Israeli occupation and warfare crimes, the Palestinian president has nonetheless not known as for sanctions on one in all Israel’s main exports, the only largest web supply of overseas forex wanted to maintain and implement the settler-colonial apartheid venture in Palestine.
The online worth of Russia’s diamond exports in 2021 was $4.4 billion. Russia’s navy expenditure in 2022 was $48 billion. The online worth of Israel’s diamond exports in 2021 was $4.3 billion. Israel’s navy expenditure in 2022 was $20 billion.
The case for sanctioning Israeli diamonds is much extra urgent contemplating that diamonds are a way more vital supply of funding for apartheid and warfare crimes in Palestine.
Except and till Palestinian civil society requires sanctions on Israeli diamonds, neither the Kimberley Course of nor jewelers will do something to finish the commerce in Israeli diamonds.
However whereas every member has a veto the KP won’t ever conform to impose sanctions on Israeli diamonds simply because it has been unable to conform to sanction Russian diamonds.
Nonetheless, main jewelers together with Tiffany’s, Cartier, De Beers, Signet Jewellers, and others rapidly moved to chop Russian diamonds from their provide chains as soon as the hyperlink to warfare crimes in Ukraine was uncovered. The identical will occur to Israeli diamonds if customers are alerted to the position the trade performs in funding the settler-colonial apartheid regime which has killed over 160 Palestinians together with 20 youngsters within the West Financial institution to date this yr.
Firms have onerous fiduciary duties and should guarantee their provide chains don’t contribute to violations of worldwide human rights regulation or worldwide humanitarian regulation, a reality exemplified by the prosecution of executives of Swedish Firm Lundin Power.
Shoppers are saved at the hours of darkness concerning the trade-in diamonds that fund Israeli apartheid and warfare crimes that flood the market labeled conflict-free. The trade and vested governments have created a matrix of Schemes, Codes of Apply, Greatest Apply Ideas, and a System of Warranties that facilitate the cover-up.
Israel is a serious participant within the international diamond trade, each as a dealer of tough diamonds and a producer of reduce & polished diamonds
Up till 2014, Israel imported about $5 billion in tough diamonds annually from Africa, Russia, and Canada. Many are imported through Antwerp.
In 2014 Israel’s diamond exports have been price over $21 billion gross ($11 billion web) and accounted for 30% of producing exports.
Since 2014 Israel’s diamond exports have been in sharp decline. Even earlier than Covid, they have been falling, down 21% to $2.62 billion within the first 9 months of 2019.
With the normalisation of relations with the United Arab Emirates, a serious diamond buying and selling hub, authorities in Israel hope to revive the diamond trade. The commerce has recovered strongly within the first half of 2022.
Supporters of Palestinian human rights have been pressuring corporations to divest from the Israeli diamond trade. Since 2019, Anglo American, which owns De Beers, has come beneath stress from shareholder activists who’ve uncovered the corporate’s claims that their diamonds are conflict-free. A few of De Beers’ enterprise companions have immediately funded the Israeli navy.
In 2020 De Beers divested from A. B. T. Diamonds Ltd. weeks after shareholders lodged a criticism with the Promoting Requirements UK citing the corporate for making vital donations to the Israeli navy.
In 2017 Tiffany and Co. divested from a Beny Steinmetz-owned mine in Sierra Leone after activists uncovered the hyperlink to the Givati Brigade accountable for the Samouni household bloodbath in Gaza.
In 2014 Sotheby’s needed to take again the Steinmetz Pink diamond which they bought at public sale months earlier for a world report $83 million. The consumers defaulted with out penalty or clarification. Months previous to the public sale a registered letter and electronic mail have been despatched to Sotheby’s CEO warning of the danger to the corporate’s model and status posed by their partnership with the Steinmetz Diamond Group.
At about the identical time, the long-established Steinmetz Diamond Group was rebranded as Diacore in a transfer that distances main jewellery manufacturers De Beers, Tiffany’s and Sotheby’s from the Steinmetz model and the Samouni household bloodbath.
Through the 2014 warfare, the Israeli diamond trade despatched “vehicles of kit” to troopers committing warfare crimes in Gaza.
The Kimberley Course of Civil Society Coalition (KPCSC) is one leg of the tripartite Kimberley Course of Certification Scheme together with the World Diamond Council and the 80 member states that are the one ones with voting rights – every with a veto to dam adjustments they don’t agree with.
The KP has been unable to succeed in an settlement to vary the definition of a “battle diamond” which is restricted to tough diamonds that fund insurgent violence towards legit governments. Blood diamonds that fund warfare crimes or crimes towards humanity by authorities forces evade regulation and are labeled conflict-free.
Palestinians aren’t represented within the KPCSC and so their voices aren’t heard across the KP desk when vested governments make choices about which blood diamonds ought to be banned and which may be labeled conflict-free.
Palestinians have arguably suffered longer and way over some other neighborhood impacted by the diamond trade.
No different neighborhood has suffered the horrendous devastation, loss, and struggling brought on throughout the a number of bombings of Gaza from land, sea, and air.
No different communities have needed to endure the cold-blooded homicide of hundreds of youngsters and harmless civilians together with journalists and medics together with blatant discrimination, oppression, residence demolitions, assaults by settlers and authorities, theft of land and sources, and arbitrary arrests and detention with out cost or trial as Palestinians have.
Diamonds which are a big supply of funding for an apartheid regime responsible of grievous human rights violations are each bit as bloody as those who fund rogue regimes in Africa or Russia.
Platitudes have solely emboldened Israel. Palestinian civil society ought to demand that the jewellery trade finish the commerce in diamonds from Israel which subjugates and brutalizes them day by day.
– Sean Clinton is a human rights activists from Eire with a specific curiosity in Israel/Palestine and the position diamonds play in funding the Zionist venture in Palestine. He has authored a number of articles concerning the double-standard within the diamond trade which facilitates the commerce in reduce and polished blood diamonds. He contributed this text to PalestineChronicle.com.
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