Blood Diamonds: Global jewelry brands Complicit in Palestinian Genocide

The continued sale of processed diamonds from the occupied territories to luxury brands such as De Beers, Forevermark, Tiffany, Bulgari, Harry Winston, Cartier, Signet Jewelers, and others demonstrates a calculated acceptance of credit, financial, and legal risks.

This conscious choice highlights the industry’s confidence in its ability to conceal its complicity in severe human rights violations while protecting itself from accountability, even as its diamond supply chains fund a regime responsible for the brutal genocide of Palestinians, occurring openly and visibly worldwide.

Rather than severing ties to protect their brands and shareholders, diamond companies employ a mix of extensive sophistry and a complex matrix of certification schemes, false guarantees, and public assurances to obscure their links to human rights violations by the Israeli regime.

Diamond exports have been a cornerstone of the Israeli economy for the past two decades, and even amid the 2024 genocide, diamond exports were the second most valuable net export for Israel, adding $3.8 billion to the regime’s economy.

Eleven years ago, a report was published highlighting the jewelry industry’s silence following Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza, which resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 Palestinians. Since then, Israel has continued killing, beating, imprisoning, torturing, intimidating, and ethnically cleansing Palestinians in what has been described as an ongoing genocide.

This genocide accelerated dramatically in October 2023, as Israel used the pretext of suppressing Palestinian resistance to pursue ethnic cleansing across the entire Gaza Strip, a long-standing goal of the occupying regime.

The colonial settler project in Palestine has continued with the support of the diamond industry under self-regulatory umbrellas such as the Kimberley Process (KP) and the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), without obstacles.

With the cooperation of affiliated parties, the industry established the Kimberley Process to mitigate public concern over the trade of “blood diamonds.” However, both the KP and RJC certification schemes facilitate the laundering of billions of dollars in Israeli diamonds—so-called “conflict-free” jewels—that fund genocide, despite the industry’s claims.

It is not as though prominent jewelry brands are unaware that the Israeli diamond industry generates substantial funding for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Palestinians and their supporters have been raising awareness of the Israeli “blood diamond” trade for over two decades. Even a brief examination quickly reveals the significance of taxes generated by these companies for Israel’s economy—taxes that, according to Netanyahu, fund 88% of the Israeli military’s security budget.

In January 2023, Netanyahu stated that the economic power of his regime directly translates into military power, which in turn strengthens its diplomatic power. This diplomatic power functions as impunity for numerous overt war crimes.

According to Israeli political analyst Shir Hever, diamond companies in the occupied territories generate taxes that constitute a significant funding source for the genocidal regime. They also employ members of the Israeli military who commit acts of genocide and provide financial support to the occupying army.

By maintaining supply chains connected to the diamond sector in the occupied territories, companies violate the very principles they publicly endorse—principles outlined in codes of conduct, supplier charters, and corporate social responsibility reports.