That diamond ring on your finger could be enabling Gaza genocide

Every diamond has a story. Yours likely began with a child knee-deep in Congolese mud, digging for stones that armed groups tax and smuggle. It passed through Dubai’s gleaming towers, where one billion carats of diamonds were exchanged last year – none mined in the UAE. It was cut in Surat, India, where exploited workers, prone to suicide, earn less than $5 a day polishing nine out of ten of the world’s gems.

It was certified “conflict-free” by the Kimberly Process (KP), which, over two decades, has found only two countries (Angola and Sierra Leone) worthy of the “blood diamond” label, while other countries have falsified certificates to circumvent the process.

That precious stone ended up in Tel Aviv, the fifth largest exporter of diamonds worldwide, where the Israeli Diamond Exchange, still shuttered by the war with Iran, has allegedly pumped roughly $1 billion annually into the military complex that perpetrated genocide in Gaza.

This is not a supply chain. It is a war machine engineered by a triad of occupation powers (Israel, India and the UAE) running on African blood.

US-Israel war on Iran

The Iran war exposed this architecture’s fragility but also reflected resilience. Missiles struck Israel’s Ramat Gan in 2025 and in April 2026, directly impacting the IDE's ability to continue trading. In March 2026, Dubai International Airport shut down for 48 hours, directly impacting the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) headed by Ahmed Bin Sulayem, who also presided over the KP in 2025, and through which major tender houses usually host auctions in the diamond sector.

Dubai reported a significant recovery in July 2026, suggesting record trade volumes, but the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the expansion of the war is expected to impact on the market.

70% of India’s $30 billion gem sector, which routes through Dubai, also faced regional disruption. By March 2026, the $350 million Surat Diamond Bourse was virtually empty, with only about 250 of the over four thousand offices operational.

The IDE withdrew from the World Federation of Diamond Bourses in April 2025, before its closure under bombardment. Yet the financial architecture of genocide persists: for decades, the IDE poured approximately $1 billion per annum into Israel’s military and security apparatus.

The diamond sector and the war machine share the same financial ecosystem.

Israeli economist Shir Hever testified at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine in 2010, stating that “the Israeli diamond industry contributes about $1 billion annually to the Israeli military and security industries… every time somebody buys a diamond that was exported from Israel, some of that money ends up in the Israeli military.”

The Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee also confirms that Israel’s illegal occupation is funded by the diamond industry.

The blood diamonds complete their circuit in Gaza. Extracted from Congolese conflict zones, laundered through compliant neighbours, certified “clean” by the KP, monetised in Tel Aviv – they become the drones, surveillance systems, and ordnance raining down on Palestinians.

The KP has become their moral laundry service, with manipulated certification masking the reality of carnage.

Feeding the occupation machine

Over 80 countries are signatories to the KP, collectively representing 99% of the global rough diamond trade, yet it is not a legally binding treaty. Its definition of “conflict diamonds” - restricted to gems financing rebel movements - completely voids state violence, occupation, genocide.

The DRC, despite hosting active militias including M23 in North Kivu, has never been suspended. Neither has Israel. Countries that seek to hold Israel accountable at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for genocide in Gaza, such as South Africa and Namibia, continue to trade stones, conveniently dissociating the diamond trade from war crimes.

The KP relies on self-certification rather than independent verification. Diamonds are laundered through countries with robust security ties to Israel before entering global markets as “clean”.

Israeli penetration of African diamond markets operates through politically connected traders and offshore architecture. A now-sanctioned Israeli-connected trader who secured exclusive DRC diamond export control through the Kabila regime allegedly swapped weapons for mining rights; 2017 US Treasury sanctions accused him of cheating Congo of $1.4 billion. A Dutch court fined his shell companies 25.8 million in March 2026.

Another Israeli-connected trader, convicted in 2021 for bribing Guinean officials, has been linked to DRC deals while reportedly funding the Israeli military’s Givati Brigade (accused of war crimes in Gaza). The pattern is systematic: access minerals at below-market rates, extract profit through tax havens, feed the occupation machine.

Conflict free

The global diamond trade triad – India, Israel and the UAE – has penetrated the KP. Ahmed Bin Sulayem chaired the KP on numerous occasions, first in 2015 and subsequently in 2024 and 2025. India currently chairs the KP for 2026, under the theme “3Cs” Credibility Compliance, and Consumer Confidence,” a play on the 4 Cs in diamond grading.

India’s appointment came after Qatar ceded its candidacy following Israeli objection.

In May 2026, India hosted the KP Intersessional Meeting in Mumbai, where Chair Suchindra Misra emphasised “supporting peace”, while failing to mention state violence, occupation or militias.  

India’s dominance of the diamond market stems from processing 90% of the world’s diamonds. But it operates parallel to its occupation of Kashmir, where more than 700,000 troops enforce military rule. Human rights organisations have documented systematic extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, and collective punishment, mirroring Israel’s conduct in occupied Palestine, solidified by a Defence Cooperation Agreement signed in November 2025.

The UAE has become the world’s largest diamond trading hub despite having no mines, the commercial nexus connecting Indian processing with Israeli financing and African resources. It is also the triangle’s logistics backbone.

As far back as 2021, Amnesty International alleged UAE complicity in the illicit diamond trade in the Central African Republic.

This triad – India’s Kashmir lockdown, Israel’s Gaza genocide, the UAE’s Sudan war – creates a convergence that transcends commerce. All three profit from weak regulation and manipulation of the KP’s narrow definitions When DRC conflict diamonds pass through Dubai to Surat and Tel Aviv, they traverse an occupation network with a shared interest: maintaining the fiction that these stones are “conflict-free”

A moral question

Amid the chaos, African states are recalibrating. Anglo-American has taken cumulative impairments on De Beers totalling approximately $6.8 billion across three write-downs - slashing the unit’s book value by roughly 75%. On 17 July 2026, Botswana confirmed Anglo-American has selected the “Global Diamond Consortium” as preferred bidder for De Beers, targeting Q4 2026.

Botswana, holding a 15% stake and pre-emptive rights, is weighing whether to exercise them alone, partner with the consortium, or bring in a third party. Angola seeks a 20-30% stake; Namibia has expressed interest. An African-led consortium could command 40% of global production.

This would fundamentally alter the trade. De Beers’ supply chain currently feeds Israeli cutting houses. African control could redirect rough diamonds to local beneficiation, accelerating the IDE’s collapse and subjecting Israeli diamond interests to African oversight.

The crisis is consuming the industry from within. In July 2026, De Beers idled its Venetia mine in South Africa – the country’s largest, employing 4,400 people – just three years after a $2.3 billion underground expansion meant to secure production until 2045.

With Voorspoed already closed in 2018, De Beers now has no operational diamond mines in South Africa. Alrosa suspended mining at Severalmaz for three months; Storm Mountain Diamonds’ Finsch mine entered business rescue, with South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers warning nearly 1,800 jobs at risk.

The blood diamond economy is consuming its own foundations.

For Africa, this is not merely an economic question but a moral one. If its minerals fortify occupation and genocide, resource sovereignty becomes inseparable from Palestinian justice. The stones leaving African soil, diverted through Dubai, processed in Tel Aviv, bear the invisible scars of exploitation and war.

The Kimberly Process affirmed conflict-free diamonds. It is time to ask: free from whose conflicts and at whose expense?

The Kimberly Process Secretariat was contacted by email for comment on the concerns raised in this opinion piece. No response has been received.

Zeenat Adam is a former diplomat and an independent international relations strategist based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Follow Zeenat on Instagram: @zeenatadamza

Have questions or comments? Email us at editorial-english@newarab.com

Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab.