Lev Leviev’s L.L.D. Diamonds Ltd. ranked as Israel’s top polished diamond exporter in 2010 for the tenth year in a row, according to the country’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. L.L.D. increased its polished exports by 52 percent year on year to $366 million during the year, although the value of these exports remained 12 percent below the level recorded in 2008.
Israel’s net rough exports increased 62 percent year on year to $3.1 billion in 2010, according to the ministry, while its polished imports jumped 68 percent to $4.2 billion and its rough imports gained by 51 percent to $3.8 billion. The country’s Diamond Controller, Shmuel Mordechai, said Israel’s net polished exports grew 48 percent to $5.8 billion in 2010, while net rough exports were up 62 percent to $3.1 billion. Polished imports increased 68 percent to $4.2 billion and rough imports rose 51 percent to $3.8 billion.
Bushmen Win
Botswana’s Court of Appeal overturned a 2010 High Court ruling that barred the Bushmen from accessing a water well located on their ancestral Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The appeal court’s five-judge panel ruled that the Bushmen have the right to use the well and build new ones there, despite planned development in the area. The panel also declared that the Botswana government had subjected the Bushmen to “degrading treatment” in denying them access to water and ruled it must compensate the Bushmen for the costs they incurred in filing the appeal.
The government did drill new wells in the reserve — for wildlife only. The wells are to provide water for animals to be featured in tourist company Wilderness Safaris’ luxury lodge, a project approved for construction by the government. Gem Diamonds also received the green light to construct a $3 billion mine on the land.
Botswana evicted the Bushmen in 2002, sending them to its New Xade relocation camps, where they were forced to grapple with HIV/AIDS, alcoholism and other problems previously unknown to them. The Bushmen took the government to court in a legal battle that became the longest and most expensive in the country’s history. In 2006, Botswana’s High Court ruled the evictions illegal.
Despite the ruling, the government banned Bushmen from accessing a well they relied on before the government sealed it. The Bushmen then filed their successful appeal.
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - February 2011. To subscribe click here.