Thediamond industry of Israel is an important world player in producing cutdiamonds forwholesale. In 2010,Israel became the chair of theKimberley Process Certification Scheme.[1] In 2021, Israel exported about US$5.5 billion in rough and polished diamonds.[2] According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), in 2023 diamonds made up 9.28% of the country's exports.[3]
What was to become the Israeli diamond industry began in 1937, eleven years beforethe State of Israel was established, when the first diamond polishing plant was opened inPetah Tikva byAsher Anshel Daskal and Zvi Rosenberg, two experts diamantaires fromRomania that immigrated fromBelgium.[4] In 1938 the 15% import duty on imported rough stones was removed. By 1944 the industry employed 3,300 workers in 33 factories, with£P 1,320,000 capital investment, entirely Jewish. The value of exports was over £P 3,200,000 mainly to the United States, Canada, and India; it was the largest value of any single commodity exported fromMandatory Palestine that year.[5]
After a state was declared, theconsumer economy was shifted to a war economy. This came at the height of a diamond crisis, as many war-torn economies were struggling to re-establish.[citation needed]
During the first fifteen years of Israel's existence, diamonds andJaffa oranges were the new state's main export products.[7]
After reaching its lowest point in the wake of the 1948 closedown,[8] the industry has continued to grow, producing a world leader in the diamond industry.[citation needed]
In the beginning of the 21st century, Israel is one of the world's three major centers for polisheddiamonds, alongside Belgium and India. Israel's net polished diamond exports slid 22.8% in 2012 as polished diamond exports fell to $5.56 billion from $7.2 billion in 2011. Net exports of rough diamonds dropped 20.1% to $2.8 billion and net exports of polished diamonds slipped 24.9 percent to $4.3 billion, while net rough diamond imports dropped 12.9 percent to $3.8 billion. The United States is the largest market accounting for 36% of overall export market for polished diamonds while Hong Kong remains at second with 28 percent and Belgium at 8% coming in third.[9][10][11][12]
In 2007, when diamonds still constituted almost 24% of Israel's total exports,[13] 12% of world diamonds (by their value) were polished in the country.[14] In 2010 this number decreased to 9%.[15] As of 2016[update], diamonds amounted to 28% of Israel's total exports and they were still 12% of the world's production.[16][17]
The industry is located in the "Diamond District", located inRamat Gan in theTel Aviv District. The complex is made up of four buildings, interconnected with walkways. The entire trading operation takes place in this complex.[18] TheDiamond Tower in the district contains the world's largest diamond trading floor.
The Israel Diamond Institute (IDI) Group of Companies is anon-profit, public interest company that represents all organizations and institutions involved in Israel's diamond industry.[22] The main functions of the Institute are marketing and business development, promotion of roughdiamond trading, professional training, security consultancy, technological research and development and trade shows.[23]
^'A survey of Palestine'. Vol 1. Originally published 1946-47.ISBN0-88728-211-3. Page 445.
^The Scotsman, March 8th 1948: 'Clare Hollingworth, Jerusalem, by Air Mail : One of the biggest casualties of the Palestine civil war occurred last month in a veil of obscurity. The entire Jewish-owned diamond polishing industry of Palestine, which had grown during the war to be the second largest in the world after that of Holland, was closed down. It is considered unlikely that the industry, which in 1946 exported £5,501,000 worth of cut diamonds, mostly to the United States, will reopen again on anything like its former scale. Four official reasons are given for ‘suspending work’. The first is that 2500 workers in 34 diamond-cutting plants walked out as a result of ‘hold-ups by dissident underground organisations.’ Secondly, Mr O. Ben-Ami, president of the Diamond Manufacturing Association, states that £200,000 of diamonds have been stolen since 1944. The third reason is that insurance companies, after raising diamond insurance rates for Palestine to 12 per cent. recently declined cover altogether. Fourthly, the Palestine Post Office no longer accepts registered mail. The fate of the diamond industry illustrates the twin dangers which threaten the whole of the new industrial system which the Zionists have built up rapidly in Palestine in recent years, and on which many Zionist economists based their hopes for the livelihood of a future Jewish state. The dangers are the dislocation caused by the guerrilla struggle waged by Jewish extremists, which has now developed into an economically paralysing civil war, and the post-war revival of international trade at competitive prices, which has revealed the shaky basis of wartime expansion of Zionist industry.'
