By IRNA,
London : An Irish researcher has castigated the decision by Retail Jewellery to withdraw its magazine from a major exhibition in Switzerland and for its editor Laura McCreddie to issue an unprecedented apology for publishing his letter about Israeli ‘blood diamonds.’
“It’s unfortunate that Retail Jewellery magazine felt so intimidated by representatives of the Israeli diamond industry at the Baselworld Jewellery Fair that they agreed to withdraw the magazine because of my ‘star letter’,” said Sean Clinton.
Clinton, a committee member of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), said that McCreddie thought his comments in article about ethical jewellery were ‘really pertinent’ when she had sought his permission to publish them as a letter in the April edition of leading British magazine.
“In the grovelling apology published on their website, she seeks to distance Retail Jewellery magazine from the comments she thought were pertinent a few weeks ago,” he said.
“It is clear that Retail Jeweller has been coerced into submission by vested interests in the Israeli diamond industry,” he said in an interview with IRNA about the controversial apology.
Clinton is a leading campaigning to include Israel, as the world’s largest exporter of cut and polished diamonds, in the Kimberley Process, which certifies the origin of only rough diamonds from countries free of conflict to ensure they are not financing war and human rights abuses.
“The Israeli diamond industry cannot be allowed continue using the Kimberley Process as an economic shield to shelter it from the public opprobrium rightly associated with Israel’s criminal actions in Gaza and elsewhere,” he said.
“The fact that revenue from the Israeli diamond industry contributes about $1 billion annually in funding for the Israeli military/security industry means that when someone buys a diamond processed in Israel some of the money ends up funding the on-going Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine.”
In her apology, McCreddie said that Clinton’s letter had “caused consternation to a number of our readers with its references to Israel’s diamond trade and the efficacy of the Kimberley Process.”
“We very much regret that in this instance we have inadvertently allowed our pages to be used to advance a political agenda,” she wrote, adding that to redress the imbalance she intended to meet with UK jewellery leaders and also take counsel from the international jewellery community.
But Clinton said that her attempts to redress the imbalance is “farcical” and that he looked forward to hearing how the jewellery community justifies the Kimberley Process classifying diamonds that fund war crimes in Africa as blood diamonds while classifying diamonds that fund war crimes in Gaza as conflict free.
“The diamond industry is deceiving the public by classifying diamonds that fall outside the Kimberley Process narrow definition of a conflict diamond as conflict free diamonds.”
“If, as claimed, Retail Jeweller takes the concerns of its readers very seriously then it should not allow vested interests in the diamond industry to stifle discussion about an issue of such importance to everyone in the jewellery trade and one which the general public have a right to know about,” he said.
The credibility of the Kimberley Process, Clinton said, has already been severely damaged by the export of blood-tainted diamonds from Zimbabwe and “this attempt to censor public debate further erodes public confidence in the diamond industry and the Kimberley Process regulations.”
“Until such time as the Kimberley Process is reviewed so all diamonds that fund human rights violations are classed as conflict or blood diamonds the public can have no confidence that the diamond industry is serious about ending the trade in blood diamonds,” he told IRNA.