On September 17, 2020, simply two days after the signing of the Abraham Accords in Washington and the institution of diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE, the Israel Diamond Change (IDE) and Dubai Diamond Change (DDE) signed a cooperation settlement. The doc dedicated the IDE and DDE to ascertain places of work within the different’s
headquarters and promote bilateral commerce and joint tasks.

The pace with which the settlement was reached actually indicated the keenness with which the world’s two main diamond exchanges entered into a brand new period of partnership. However it additionally mirrored one other, much less publicised reality: That lengthy earlier than official ties between Israel and the UAE have been established, enterprise figures from each nations have been linked by the commerce in treasured stones. One would possibly even say that the street to the open financial cooperation between Israel and the Emirates created by the Abraham Accords, was paved by diamonds.

For Israel, the diamond business is a long-established key sector of its economic system whose beginnings pre-date the institution of the state. The commerce in treasured stones had for hundreds of years attracted the Jewish retailers of a diaspora scattered throughout the globe and in want of a universally-accepted, easily-transported forex. In the Thirties, Jewish sellers from Germany immigrated to then pre-state Israel, bringing their experience in sprucing and buying and selling treasured stones. The IDE was established within the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan within the Nineteen Sixties and now boasts some 3,100 members, whereas minimize and polished diamonds account for some 23 per cent of Israeli exports.

The UAE is a more moderen energy on the planet diamond market, however has made outstanding advances during the last 20 years. Dubai’s place as a pre-eminent regional buying and selling hub and magnet for luxurious international tourism, and its proximity to Asian centres of treasured gem manufacturing, have made it a pure centre for the business. The DDE, which was established in 2002 below the umbrella of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), has over 1,100 licensed corporations. It now handles some $25bn in complete commerce, double that of Israel’s IDE.

Publish the Abraham Accords, the hyperlinks between the Israel and UAE diamond industries have rapidly superior. The DMCC opened a consultant workplace inside Ramat Gan’s IDE in late 2020 – and the IDE did the identical in Dubai’s DMCC this previous February. 

Israel exported $188m in tough diamonds to the UAE in 2021, and that quantity is for certain to develop after each nations signed a free commerce deal in June, eliminating customs duties on 95 per cent of merchandise, together with chopping the tariffs on diamonds and treasured gems from 5 % to zero.

And it might be that the position the diamond commerce performed in pre-figuring the ties between Israel and the UAE, may be replicated elsewhere. Though Israel and Qatar nonetheless don’t have official diplomatic relations, the 2 have reportedly reached an settlement on permitting Israeli diamond merchants to do enterprise in a brand new free commerce zone for treasured stones and gold in Doha, arrange alongside the mannequin of Dubai’s DMCC. So the glittering path paved by diamonds to the Abraham Accords, would possibly but find yourself extending even additional within the Gulf. 

Calev Ben-David is an anchor of the nightly information programme, The Rundown, on i24NEWS