On Monday morning human rights groups, trade unions and several organizations, including South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM); South Africa's largest trade union federation, COSATU; the SACP; YCL; South African Students Congress (SASCO); Congress of South African Students (COSAS), the Coalition for a Free Palestine and BDS South Africa issued a call to the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme currently meeting in South Africa to exclude Israel from the international diamond regulatory body. Former South African ambassador to Washington, Mr Welile Nhlapo, is the current chairman of the Kimberley Process.

 

The statement issued on Monday at a press conference held at COSATU's Head Office in Johannesburg read: "With South Africa currently serving as global chair for this once-promising oversight mechanism, the KPCS meeting presents an important opportunity for South African officials to show both moral vision and political leadership…in doing so, they could also secure thousands of new jobs for South Africans and additional tax revenues by bringing lucrative diamond processing operations [from Israel] home to South Africa...the definition of a “conflict diamond” currently applied within the KP extends only to “rough diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to fund violence against legitimate governments”. It thus excludes, for instance, billions of dollars worth of diamonds exported from Israel that are a major source of revenue for the Israeli military, which stands accused of war crimes…not only do Israeli diamond exports fund the ongoing crimes of the Israeli military regime against Palestinians, but industrial diamonds processed in Israel are also widely understood to be central to Israel’s production and export of military and security technologies. Most importantly, this includes pilotless “drone” aircraft." (Find the full statement issued by South African organizations to the Kimberly Process here: http://tinyurl.com/l39tydk)

 

Speaking to the Business Day Newspaper, Southern Africa Resource Watch director Claude Kabemba commented that most diamond-linked conflicts had been resolved, and the Kimberley Process now had to expand its mandate and monitor the entire diamond chain: "The Kimberley Process has played an important role over the past decade in resolving conflicts linked to the diamond trade but there is no doubt that it has to be reformed ... [by] expanding the definition of conflict to include human rights abuses linked to diamond extraction perpetrated by governments and companies; and expanding downstream monitoring so that the progress covers not just the rough diamond trade but also the international movement and polishing of diamonds."

 

The issuers of Monday's South African civil society statement specifically called on the Kimberly Process to:

1. Exclude Israel from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) due to Israel's human rights abuses against the indigenous Palestinians;
2. Expand the Kimberley Process to include cut and polished diamonds in addition to rough diamonds; and
3. Immediately end all exports of rough diamonds to Israel.

 

In addition a call was made "for companies in South Africa to be incentivised, in consultation with trade union structures, to locally expand existing cutting and polishing facilities and develop new facilities, so that South Africans can enjoy the fullest benefits from the country’s natural resources."

Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, member of BDS South Africa, comments: "The boycott of Israeli blood diamonds, and specifically the banning of diamond-polishing in Israel, is a win-win solution for all. Consumers will have a clear conscience that their diamonds are not funding, assisting or in any way involved with the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine, more jobs will be created locally for our people by bringing this diamond processing back home instead of it being being done in Israel and not to mention the benefits that there are for the South African economy as a whole. Opponents of the Israel boycott often try to claim that the boycott will harm South Africans, here is a case where it only but benefits."

The Kimberley Process was launched 10 years ago to address the trade in conflict diamonds and to ensure that diamond purchases were not financing violence by rebel movements seeking to undermine legitimate governments. It has 54 participants, representing 90 countries, and its members account for about 99.8% of the global production of rough diamonds. Starting yesterday (Tuesday 04 June), the KPCS began its four day meeting in the South African city of Kimberley (where the KPSC was established ten years ago.) The KPCS is coming under increasing pressure to exclude Israel due to the Israeli regime's involvement in human rights abuses against the indigenous Palestinian people.  For more information on this topic visit www.bdssouthafrica.com/2011/06/boycott-campaign-against-israeli-blood.html

 

--------
Successful "Twitter-storm" raises awareness around #IsraeliBloodDiamonds

On Monday night, on the eve of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) meeting taking place in South Africa, human rights activists took to the social media network, Twitter, to raise awareness around Israeli Blood Diamonds, this resulted in the hashtag #IsraeliBloodDiamonds trending at number one for several hours. See https://twitter.com/TrendsSthAfrica/status/341636430759616512TrendsSthAfrica/status/341636430759616512

--------

 

 

BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA (BDS SOUTH AFRICA)
Office 915 | 9th Floor | Khotso House | 62 Marshall Street | Johannesburg
PO Box 2318 | Houghton | 2041 | Johannesburg
T: +27 (0) 11 492 2414 | M: +27 (0) 84 211 9988 | F: +27 (0) 86 650 4836
W: www.bdssouthafrica.com | E: administrator@bdssouthafrica.com
www.facebook.com/bdssouthafrica | www.twitter.com/bdssouthafrica

BDS South Africa is a registered Non-Profit Organization. NPO NUMBER: 084 306 NPO
BDS South Africa is a registered Public Benefit Organisation with Section 18A status. PBO NUMBER: 930 037 446