Leviev, the world’s largest cutter and polisher of #diamonds, has been linked to expanding #Jewish-only settlements in the #Palestinian #WestBank and a sketchy #human #rights record in #Angola, where it controls the diamond supply. We speak to two Palestinian and Jewish members of Adalah-#NewYork, a group that’s held weekly #protests outside Leviev’s Madison Avenue store. democracynow.org/2008/2/14/activists_call_for_boycott_of_diamond #Israel is the third largest #exporter of polished diamonds in the world. According to Israel’s trade ministry, these sales were worth $5.6 billion in 2012. Shir Hever, an Israeli left-wing #economist, has calculated that Israel’s diamond trade brings about $1 #billion per year to Israel’s #war and #occupation industry.Yet the Kimberley Process, an international body nominally dedicated to stopping the diamond trade from fuelling #wars, has refused to accept that Israeli diamond exports should fall into the category of “conflict” or “#blood” diamonds. The Kimberley Process has been almost exclusively focused on #Africa. The close connections between Israel and Antwerp might explain — at least partly — why the #Belgian political elite will not call out Israel as an #apartheid state.To a large extent, the diamond district in Tel Aviv is an offshoot of the one in #Antwerp. During the World #Zionist Congress in 1905, some Belgian delegates offered to teach the tricks of the diamond trade to Zionists settling in #Palestine. And many of the #Zionists who founded a diamond center in Palestine during the 1930s started off by polishing half-finished diamonds they had imported from Antwerp. The Antwerp World Diamond Centre — the body representing the #city’s diamond sector — also signals that it abhors #conflict diamonds. Yet it is willing to make an exception for Israel. electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/express-delivery-israels-war-diamonds #TelAviv has the highest standard of living of any city in Israel. It is the New York of Israel in that it is the commercial and financial center of the #country. Tel Aviv is also the #industrial center of Israel, where textiles, #clothing, chemicals, metal #working, #motor #vehicles and electronic equipment are produced. Tel Aviv is also the seat of the #Stock Exchange and the Diamond Exchange. jbuff/c121202.htm
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 08:03:05 +0000
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