Saturday 7 July 2012

No to Gaza ' blood diamond'' on display in the Tower of london


Yesterday I found out that the Tower of London currently has on display a blood diamond. A family whose twenty-nine members were killed during Israel's 22 day offensive of the Gaza strip issued an appeal to Queen Elizabeth 11 about the Steinmetz Jubilee Pink Diamond
http://www.steinmetzdiamonds.com/en/jubilee-pink-diamonds.html

This is currently on display in an exhibition at the Tower of London.It was the Steinmetz supported Givati Brigade who were responsible for one of the worst war crimes committed during the assault on the besieged residents of Gaza City in January 2009.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem http://www.btselem.org/ describes the incident as follows:

'On 4 January 2009, at the start of the ground phse of Operation Cast lead, about 100 members of the extended Samouni family were uddled inside one house in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City. The next morning, an Israeli airstrike killed 21 people inside the house, including 9 children and 10 women, and injured dozens of other family members.
During the next 2 days, the army refused access to medical teams in spite of being informed of the trterrible outcome by family members who managed to escape the bombed homes and to human rights and humanitarian organisations, including B'Tselem.
When medics managed to get to site, they found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses, and evacuated several wounded people.
The army refused permission to evacuate the bodies and they remained in the rubble for a further two weeks.'

It seems that in my opinion that the Queen of England


 on behalf of the British people should decline this gift and demand that De Beers be instructed to remove this offensive blood diamond display immediately. The 35.60-carat pink diamond , crafted by Steinmetz Diamonds, has been on display at the Tower of London since June 1st, marking the Queens Jubilee. Does this lady not have enough Diamonds, does she not shed a tear  or two, when she realises the methods used to procure them, does she simply ignore the demonstrations that   have been held every week at the Tower of London since the Jubilee , and this blood diamond has been on went on display . Today there will be a demo taking place outside the De Beers jewellry shop in Picadilly and Bond Street. It will hopefully inform shoppers (and perhaps Mrs Windsor)  that the diamond market is heavily contaminated with cut and polished diamonds that have been used to fund human rights violations,and that the Israeli Diamond Industry is a major source of funding for the Israeli military who stand accused of serious war crimes and  possible war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by the Human Rights Council,that these blood diamonds are not subject to any regulation and are sold to unsuspecting consumers labelled as conflict-free diamonds.

If like me you feel uneasy  about this diamond being on display at the Tower of London you can leave them a message on their facebook page which I did yesterday.http://www.facebook.com/TOL.London
The comment will probably dissapear quite quickly but at least you will be sending them a message.


Some useful links
A first person account of the Zeitoun killings in Gaza
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/10/gaza-zeitoun-attack-deaths

The smell of Death
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/01/18/the-smell-of-death.html

Thanks to London BDS
http://londonbds.org/

facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Israelblooddiamonds

Sammoni family appeal
to  the Queen.

3 comments:

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  2. Thanks for sharing this. To find out a lot more about the global trade in Israeli blood diamonds check out this dedicated campaign page https://www.facebook.com/Israelblooddiamonds
    Diamonds account for 25-35% of Israel's exports, worth >$20 billion gross and $10 billion NET to the Israeli economy each year. Revenue from the Israeli diamond industry generates over $1 billion in funding for the war criminals in the Israeli military each year. Despite this, Israeli diamonds evade the human rights standards applied to rough diamonds by the Kimberley Process and are sold to unsuspecting consumers labelled as conflict-free diamonds. 50% of the diamonds sold in the US come from Israel.

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  3. thanks for infomatiom, link already up at bottom of the article.....best wishes regards.

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