Israel to lead fight on ‘blood diamonds’
Who’d a thunk it? But Israel is set to lead a group working to stop the $6 billion trade in African “blood diamonds”, says the Israel Diamond Institute. Boaz Hirsch, of Israel's ministry of industry, trade and labour, was elected chairman of the Kimberley Process in Namibia last week. Since 2003, the year the Process was born, trade in conflict diamonds has dropped to 1% from 15% of the world's $60 billion trade in rough diamonds. Israel’s diamond trade is worth more than $10 billion of that, and the UN says it may be involved in the illegal export and sale of so-called blood diamonds from Ivory Coast. Guess what the Israelis have said about that. Read more: Reuters
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