The fact that the Israeli diamond industry is estimated to generate about $1 billion/yr. in funding for the Israeli military should have meant diamonds from Israel were regarded as blood diamonds and banned years ago.
The diamond industry in Israel is the cornerstone of the economy that generates the revenue needed to sustain a belligerent apartheid regime which commits serious human rights violations on a daily basis and ignores all attempts by the international community to broker a just and lasting peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.
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Who fabricated the myth of the rarity and purity of diamonds in the first place? I mean, considering the blood and death involved in mining them, that story had to be buried beneath some other myth like "eternal love" to sell.
ReplyDeleteThey created and were all over the romance market and still continue to create ever new reasons to celebrate with diamonds. Anniversary, love, special days, graduation ~ it is a huge sucker market.
Diamonds used to be just another pretty stone along with rubies, emeralds and sapphires. Diamonds are not rare ~ they are found in many locations in vast quantity. They are also fabricated for industrial purposes.
The Israel connection should be obvious to anyone familiar with the BDS movement.
http://www.ism-london.org.uk/114/
http://www.bdssouthafrica.com/2011/06/boycott-campaign-against-israeli-blood.html
http://londonbds.org/2012/02/05/no-valentine-for-israeli-blood-diamonds/