Summary
The Diamond Club (Mo’adon Hayahalom), established in Tel Aviv in November 1937 under Akiva Weiss as the organizing and licensing body of Palestine’s early diamond merchants and manufacturers (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.41-42).
Details
- A private initiative supported by the Jewish Agency’s Trade and Industry Department; its Internal Regime required a member to have “a good repute [Shem Tov], negotiate in good faith and behave toward others as comrades [Rei’m]” (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.41).
- Only members were granted British licenses to import rough diamonds and export polished diamonds; it had forty members in 1938 (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.41-42).
- Backed financially and politically by the Jewish Agency, the club pressed successfully for the September 1938 drastic reduction of customs duties on rough diamonds (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.42).
- In winter 1940 the club led the Tishby-Weiss camp for a national-liberal organization of the industry, against Oved Ben-Ami’s Netanya scheme (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.47-49).
- Under the Palestine Diamond Manufacturers’ Association monopoly of 1940, club members, who for years cultivated trading ties with Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, were placed outside the controlled system, and the PDMA’s export system totally bypassed the club’s exporter-members in Tel Aviv (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.68, p.70).