"RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL -Reports that illicit diamond sales bolstered the fortunes of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network have heightened already intense scrutiny of the diamond trade. Even before these revelations, the issue of "blood" or "conflict diamonds" - gems sold to fund wars in Africa - were the subject of United Nations inquiries and Congressional reports. In November, spurred by the possible terrorist connection, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to throttle conflict-diamond trade.Inside Israel's diamond trade: a family affairThere is widespread worry in the diamond community that the ensuing restrictions could stifle legitimate trade as well, but Schnitzer is seemingly unconcerned.
"It's nothing," he says, dismissing the furor with a wave. Yet it's an issue that touches his family.
His son Shmuel helps lead efforts by the Belgium-based World Diamond Council to cope with conflict diamonds and protect the industry. And the whiz-kid reputation of Schnitzer's grandson, Daniel Gertler, has been shadowed by stories of his willingness to spice diamond deals with military perks. . .
As vice-chairman of the World Diamond Council's committee on conflict diamonds and current president of Israel's diamond exchange, Shmuel Schnitzer is well acquainted with the issue. "We didn't volunteer for this," he says. "But we have to do the utmost to solve the problem."
Today, the exchange brings Israel $13 billion in imports and exports, and is the country's second-largest industry. Israel buys some 50 percent of the world's rough diamonds, two-thirds of which go to the US.
Rebel forces in Angola were selling $300 million a year in rough diamond. RUF rebels in Sierra Leone moved between $25 and $100 million a year. How likely is it some of those diamonds didn't go to the country which handles 50% of the uncut diamonds in the world?
Now you are being merely obnoxious.