IPSC : "Israeli Blood Diamonds are forever ... on your conscience"

galway | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Sunday March 25, 2007 16:07

by Sean Clinton - Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Israeli Blood Diamonds ... No Tanks !

Members of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign manned stalls in Galway and Limerick on Saturday to highlight the clandestine trade in Israeli diamonds. Irish consumers are unaware that most of the diamonds sold in Ireland are crafted in Apartheid Israel, the worlds leading exporter of cut/polished diamonds. This year gemstone exports from Apartheid Israel are expected to approximate $18-$20 billion or more than 150% of Apartheid Israel’s $12 billion military budget for 2007. Diamond exports comprise 30% of Apartheid Israel’s total manufacturing exports and are the backbone of the apartheid regime’s economy. Consumers need to be made aware that when they purchase diamonds they are likely to be supporting the illegal occupation and brutal subjugation of the Palestinian people.

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign has written to the Retail Jewellers of Ireland (RJI) asking if they will support consumers' right to choose and their right to
information about the country where each diamond was crafted, if their members would endeavour to make "Israel Free" diamonds available for consumers who do not wish to
support the apartheid Israeli state and if the RJI will support the calls for the definition of conflict diamonds, as set out in the Kimberley process, to be amended so that it no longer excludes cut/polished diamonds from conflict zones such as Israel.

To-date the RJI has not responded to the letter.

Next Saturday 31st March the IPSC will have public information stalls on the streets in Dublin, Galway and Limerick to raise public awareness about this clandestine trade in Israeli diamonds and asking consumers to refuse to buy diamonds that are not clearly identifiable as Israel-free.

Please take a moment to write or phone the executive members of the RJI and encourage them to set an example for jewellers the world over by supporting the call for the boycott of Israeli diamonds.

President
Eileen Moore
Moores Jewellers
Main Street
Carrigaline
County Cork
Tel: 021-4371341
Fax
eMail: president@rji.ie

Vice President
Damien Duggan
Duggan Jewellers
29 Annesley Bridge Street, Fairview
Dublin 3
County Dublin
Tel: 01-8555564
Fax 01-8764508
eMail: vp@rji.ie

Secretary
Betty Lawrence
Arbutus Grove
Quin
County Clare
Tel: 065 6825714
Fax 065 6825924
eMail: secretary@rji.ie