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offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

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offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

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The Saker

Indymedia ireland

Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Army Sergeant Travis Decker Murdered His Three Children After Being Denied Mental Health Care at JBL... Sat Jun 07, 2025 04:52 | JBLM Whistleblowers
A corrupt military police force and incompetent Commander who denied emergency mental health care and crisis counseling to an American service member resulted in the murder of the sergeant's three young daughters

offsite link Gaza doctor grieves her nine children killed in Israeli strike Sun May 25, 2025 20:00 | imc
Israeli regime continues it's slaughter
'The children were completely charred'

Paediatrician Alaa al-Najjar was treating victims of Israeli attacks when her children were killed by an Israeli strike on their home

offsite link British doctors working in Gaza describe territory as a ?slaughterhouse? Sat May 24, 2025 00:23 | imc
There?s no food getting in so people are starving,? surgeon Tom Potokar says
British doctors working in Gaza have described the territory as a ?slaughterhouse,? where the patients they are treating are severely malnourished.

Plastic surgeons and orthopedic specialists from the UK are based at the Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis in the south of the territory.

Dr. Tom Potokar, a plastic surgeon specializing in burn injuries, has worked in Gaza 16 times but said this mission had revealed a level of destruction far greater than his last visit in 2023,

offsite link It is time to talk about the Out of Control Immigration. Mon Mar 31, 2025 22:12 | imc
For the last few years since the CV19 scamdemic undocumented immigration into Ireland has surged. No one is allowed discuss it because they do not want any rational debate about it. If you do you are labelled an extremist. However this out of control immigration is fully facilitated by the Irish government and the EU and the shady figure behind the Neo Con movement pushing for endless war, wokeism and globalist agenda.

offsite link [Dublin] National Demonstration for Palestine: End Israeli Apartheid & Genocide Thu Mar 06, 2025 22:35 | ipsc
Sat, 22 March 2025, 13:00 Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin 1
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, supported by over 150 Irish civil society organisations, has called another National Demonstration for Palestine on Saturday 22nd March.

The march will begin at the Garden of Remembrance at 1pm and finish outside the D?il on Molesworth Street/Kildare Street to bring our demands to the Irish government?s doorstep.

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

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offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

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offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

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Two global diamond retailers resort to censorship over Israeli Blood Diamonds issue

category international | rights, freedoms and repression | press release author Monday November 08, 2010 18:03author by Freda H - IPSCauthor email diamonds at ipsc dot ie Report this post to the editors

NASDAQ listed company with European HQ in Dublin blocks Facebook queries on human rights

Two of the world’s leading diamond retailers have resorted to censorship rather than answering questions about the provenance of their so-called conflict free diamonds.
bnile.jpg

Brilliant Earth and Blue Nile two of the world's leading online diamond retailers, both proclaim their diamonds are guaranteed conflict free and from ethical sources. Blue Nile is a publicly quoted company on the NASDAQ with its European Headquarters in Dublin. Both companies have over 80,000 subscribers to their Facebook pages. When subscribers to these pages posted questions asking if any of their conflict free diamonds were crafted in Israel - the world’s leading diamond exporter and a serial human rights abuser - the companies deleted the posts and failed to respond to the queries. As more people posted similar questions both companies deleted all the posts and blocked those who posted the questions.

When others posted new threads, Blue Nile took an extraordinary decision for an online retailer and altered its portal to prevent subscribers posting new threads. Having maintained this block for a number of days, last Thursday November 4th, the company reinstated the facility. However, when people once more asked the Blue Nile to clarify whether or not they were selling diamonds crafted in Israel as conflict free diamonds, the company again deleted the posts and reinstated the block on subscribers posting new threads.

All of this comes at a time of plummeting public confidence in the effectiveness of the Kimberley Process (KP) Certification Scheme - the global body set up to eliminate the trade in diamonds that fund human rights abuses, commonly referred to as blood diamonds. The KP adopted an extremely narrow definition of a conflict or blood diamond – “rough diamonds used by rebel groups or their allies to finance conflict aimed at undermining legitimate governments." As a result, diamonds that fund war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by government forces are not classed as “conflict diamonds” and these blood diamonds are being sold by jewellers the world over, including here in Ireland. Not only that, they are embellished with the title “conflict free” and unsuspecting consumers have no idea they are being sold de-facto blood diamonds.

This July the KP agreed to the export of diamonds from Zimbabwe where NGOs documented severe human rights abuses by government forces. According to the KP definition, the diamonds produced cannot be classed as blood diamonds as the crimes were committed by state actors, not rebels.

Freda Hughes, IPSC National Chairperson said, "In 2008 Israel ‘s diamond exports were over 1,200 times that of Zimbabwe’s. Despite the fact that revenue from the Israeli diamond industry funds war crimes and crimes against humanity, diamonds crafted in Israel avoid the strictures of the Kimberley Process simply because they are polished – not rough - diamonds, and the crimes they are funding are carried out by government forces and not rebels. The KP is caught in a bind of its own making as to include human rights abuses by states in the definition of a conflict diamond would result in Israel's burgeoning diamond exports being classed as conflict diamonds and banned. "

Ms. Hughes continued, "Israel has been found guilty of war crimes by two separate UN investigations in the last two years. Following both its assault on Gaza in 2008/2009 that left over 1,400 people dead including over 300 children, and the murderous attack on the Freedom Flotilla earlier this year that resulted in the death of nine humanitarian workers bringing aid to the besieged people of Gaza, UN bodies produced exhaustive reports documenting Israeli war crimes and breaches of international law.”

Ms. Hughes concluded, "Unless diamonds are laser inscribed to identify where they were crafted, diamonds crafted in Israel can not be distinguished from diamonds crafted in countries that respect human rights and international law. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign is spearheading a global initiative to expose the clandestine trade in Israeli blood diamonds and calling for an urgent review of the Kimberley Process definition of a conflict or blood diamond so that it includes all diamonds that funds human rights abuses and not just rough diamonds used by rebels. "

The IPSC has written to the Retail Jewellers in Ireland asking them to support the call for an urgent review for the Kimberley Process so that all diamonds that fund human rights abuses are classified as conflict diamonds, and for the introduction of a laser hallmarking system that will enable consumers to know where a diamond was crafted and provide them with the opportunity to choose a truly conflict-free diamond.

ENDS

Related Link: http://www.ipsc.ie/diamonds
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