Summary
The diamond-control authority established in April 1948 under Minhelet Haam by the diamond controller Albert Ehrenfeld and his deputy Jacob van Amerongen, incorporated in May 1948 into the Department of Trade and Industry of the state of Israel, by which the state formally replaced the British in regulating the diamond industry (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.259).
Details
- It followed the Jewish Agency’s February 1948 advisory committee on diamond affairs, aimed to resuscitate the industry and counter the Diamond Syndicate’s policy to stop sending supplies of rough diamonds to Palestine, for which Ehrenfeld was appointed diamond controller and Van Amerongen his deputy (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.259).
- An advisory committee on diamonds in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, under Peretz Bernstein with the two controllers and the industry’s representatives, practically replaced the British Diamond Control Board; by the end of May 1948 the entire system of authorization of diamond imports and exports and of the formal relations between the industry, the state and the banks was institutionalized (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.259).
- Under the State-Capital Pact, diamond control licensed diamond importers and exporters, planned an aggressive campaign against the black market, allocated credit and foreign currency to manufacturers, and regularly inspected the factories, recording the number of workers and quantities of stock (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.263-264).
- No parcel of rough diamonds was released by the state’s customs unless the importer signed a commitment to transfer to the Israeli Treasury a specified amount in hard currency out of the diamond exports within three to five months after the release (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.264).
- Diamond control virtually intervened in the economic rationalization of the factories and in their efforts to save on production costs, and assisted the industry in competing with the Belgians by finding new markets for polished stones outside the American sphere (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.264).