DIAMOND CUTTING INDUSTRY STOPS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22669, 21 June 1948, Page 2

DIAMOND CUTTING INDUSTRY STOPS

LONDON, May 20.

A consequence of the troubles in Palestine which have received little public attention has been the closing down of the Palestinian diamond-cutting industry.

This small but —in terms of foreign exchange—valuable industry was built up in the war years when Amsterdam was cut or! from the western world and when Jewish diamond-cutters were glad of a refuge in Palestine. In 1946 the industry exported cut diamonds to the value of £5,501,000, mostly to the United States, and these exports were taken into account in the agreement which fixed the allotment of dollars to Palestine from the sterling area pool. But exports of cut stones have in fact been falling since 1946; the world market has tended to decline; the Amsterdam industry has been reestablished, and Palestinian prices were high. And, above all, security has declined to a point at which it would be madness to send any special or rare stones to Palestine for cutting, says the Economist.

Diamond robberies are all too easy a way of financing underground activities, and the president of the Palestinian Diamond Manufacturers’ Association, Mr. O. Ben-Ami, said recently that £P200,000 of diamonds had been stolen since 1944. Insurance companies raised their rates for Palestine to 12 per cent (compared with 0,75 per cent in Belgium), and finally declined to provide any cover at all. The Palestine Post Office ceased to accept registered mail. Interference and extortion by dissident underground organisations became more and more blatant, and finally provoked 2500 diamond workers in 34 establishments to go on strike. Now that the industry has closed down, it is unlikely to reopen on anything like its former scale.