If the rules can't be used to hurt Israel, just change the rules (Kimberley Process)

What is The Kimberley Process?

The Kimberley Process started when Southern African diamond-producing states met in Kimberley, South Africa, in May 2000, to discuss ways to stop the trade in ‘conflict diamonds' and ensure that diamond purchases were not financing violence by rebel movements and their allies seeking to undermine legitimate governments.

In December 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution supporting the creation of an international certification scheme for rough diamonds. By November 2002, negotiations between governments, the international diamond industry and civil society organisations resulted in the creation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) . The KPCS document sets out the requirements for controlling rough diamond production and trade. The KPCS entered into force in 2003, when participating countries started to implement its rules.
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The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) imposes extensive requirements on its members to enable them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as ‘conflict-free' and prevent conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate trade.... Participants can only legally trade with other participants who have also met the minimum requirements of the scheme, and international shipments of rough diamonds must be accompanied by a KP certificate guaranteeing that they are conflict-free.

The Kimberley Process is chaired, on a rotating basis, by participating countries. So far, South Africa, Canada, Russia, Botswana, the European Union, India, Namibia, Israel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United States of America have chaired the KP, and South Africa is the Chair in 2013.

The KP has had some problems but it has gone a long way to ensure that the source of each rough diamond can be traced back to its origin to ensure that it wasn't used to fund terror groups.

Now, anti-Israel groups in South Africa are attempting to completely redefine the KP to destroy Israel's diamond polishing and cutting business.

Here is how the BDSM bizarrely tries to justify this initiative:

According to the UN based Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), only “rough diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to finance conflict aimed at undermining legitimate governments” can be classed as conflict or blood diamonds.

The KPCS classifies all other diamonds as “conflict free” regardless of what human rights violations they may be funding. Israel is the world’s leading exporter of diamonds, where approximately 50% of all gem-quality diamonds in dollar terms are processed.

Israeli companies import rough diamonds from around the world, and then process them for cutting and polishing, adding significantly to their value. The diamonds are then exported globally via distribution hubs in Antwerp, London, Hong Kong, New York and Mumbai.

Israel is the world’s leading diamond exporter, with exports valued at nearly $20 billion in 2008, accounting for over 30% of Israel’s exports.

These de facto blood diamonds are sold worldwide as conflict free diamonds to unsuspecting consumers who are unaware that their purchase is funding gross human rights violations in Palestine.

Israel helps fund the atrocities and human rights abuses that Kimberly Process is supposed to prevent being funded by revenue from diamonds.

Of course, Israel is not a producer of rough diamonds, so their initiative would completely change the very foundation of the KP and effectively destroy any good it has done. If their initiative would succeed, many more lives would be lost in Africa.

But their hate for Israel is so all-consuming that to them, destroying the Jewish state justifies any number of human rights abuses.

(From their tweets, it is also apparent that South Africa wants a piece of the diamond cutting and polishing trade, so hurting Israel would have presumed economic benefits for SA. The free market doesn't work for inferior work, so a pretense to care about human rights is the next best thing.)

Beyond that, this initiative reveals how sick the minds of anti-Israel activists are. If existing rules (or crazed misinterpretations of existing rules)  do not do enough to marginalize Israel for their tastes, then they must change the rules.

But only for Israel!

The logic, that somehow Israel's diamond industry funds the IDF and therefore must be destroyed, would also mean that any service or product from any country that does anything that can be construed as unpalatable must be stopped.

Let's pretend for a moment that someone would start a campaign to stop Gaza exports of strawberries to Europe, because taxes paid for the product helps fund Hamas human rights violations (which they undoubtedly do.)

These same BDSMers would be the first to say that this is "collective punishment" against all Gazans.

However, there is no such thing as "collective punishment" for Israelis. They all deserve punishment, when you are an Israel-hater. The rules for Israel are unique and cannot apply to any other country or entity.

That's how twisted the haters of Israel are.

Israel-hatred is truly a psychosis. And when it is this single-minded, this divorced from reality, it resembles nothing so much as traditional antisemitism.

(h/t Steven Z)