Rock candy takes on a new meaning in Geneva, with $2.3m candy swap diamond heist (photo, Mario Sarto, wikipedia)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 61-year-old Israeli man accused in Geneva of stealing $2.3 million in diamonds from Alldiam, a Geneva diamond dealer, can be extradited to Switzerland to stand trial. A court in Jerusalem made the ruling Monday 21 February, according to Israeli media.
The man was arrested at his home in Ramat Gan in July 2010, after reportedly entering Israel under a false identity. His partner in the supposed crime had earlier been arrested in The Netherlands.
The two are suspected of replacing real diamonds they were being shown with candy ones, then smuggling the real jewels out of Switzerland. The theft, according to the extradition request, occurred in April 2009 at a meeting at Alldiam in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva.
It is not clear if the diamonds were rough or already cut and polished.
Alldiam was created by Jean-Pierre Hofmann in Geneva in 1979. The company cuts its own diamonds in Surat, India and sells them.
The Israeli man’s wife says he is being detained in Israel under poor conditions and that he is in weak health, arguments his lawyer used to no avail in the extradition hearings, according to Ynet.
French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie had shoes and eggs thrown at her car when she crossed from Jerusalem to the Gaza Strip, and protestors held up posters of family and friends in Israeli prisons. The border-crossing incidents took place after the minister met with the father of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier, who also has French nationality, now held in captivity for five years. She made remarks to the young man’s father that his son should be allowed Red Cross visits, but when the father told reporters that not permitting the visits is a war crime, some media attributed the remarks to the minister. Le Monde reports that she was booed because of “a misunderstanding”.
Links to other sites: BBC, Jerusalem Post, Le Monde (Fr)
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington for meetings, is seeing US following sharp criticism from the US and increased tensions over Israel’s decision to build new settlements in East Jerusalem, but he came out forcefully on Israel’s right to build on land that is part of disputed territory taken during the 1967 Middle East War. “”The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 year ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today. Jerusalem is not a settlement. It’s our capital,” Netanyahu said at a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an American pro-Israel lobby group.
He met Monday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice-president Joe Biden and he meets Tuesday with President Barack Obama.
Links to other sites: BBC, Jerusalem Post, New York Times, Xinhua
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland has added its voice to a growing number of nations asking Israel to end its plans to build 1,600 new homes in the Occupied West Bank. The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) in a statement Thursday morning 11 March called the decision a clear violation of international law.
“The FDFA is following with concern the events taking place in East Jerusalem, and deplores the go-ahead given by the Government of Israel to the building of 1,600 new dwellings in the settlement of Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It asks the Government of Israel not to proceed with the building project. East Jerusalem is an integral part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“Switzerland considers the building of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to be a violation of international humanitarian law, which forbids an occupying power to transfer any part of its civilian population to an occupied territory. The Israeli settlements are a clear violation of international law.”
Israel has approved plans for 900 housing units to be built at Gilo, on land captured in 1967, which is today part of the municipality of Jerusalem. A White House spokesperson in the US and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed dismay, saying the move would not help peace talks in the Middle East. The new housing is illegal under international law as widely interpreted, although Israel disputes this. Aljazeera reports that US negotiator George Mitchell asked Israel Monday 16 November not to approv the plans. . The plans are now subject to public comment.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, BBC, New York Times
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was in Washington DC for talks with US President Barack Obama Tuesday, 18 August, his first visit in almost 6 years. Egypt is a key ally of the US in the Middle East, and the US needs its involvement in the issues of the Israel-Palestine peace process and Iran’s nuclear programme. Relations with the previous US administration of George W. Bush were strained by the latter’s insistence on human rights in Egypt. Mubarak asked in his meeting with Obama that Israel take “concrete steps” towards the peace process, which observers say means that Israel stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
Obama has publicly called on Israel to stop construction, a major point of contention between Palestinians and Israelis. Yesterday, 18 August, reports from Jerusalem indicated that Israel had not approved any new building in the occupied territories since end March. Israeli officials have played down the fact because of the difficulties it raises within the ruling coalition in Israel. BBC, Jerusalem Post, Reuters
Update 17:45 FULL TEXT of Obama speech (pdf) US President Barack Obama is set to speak to the Muslim world from Cairo University in Egypt today 4 June in a major speech months in the crafting. US officials are playing down the speech’s importance, saying that years of misunderstandings between the US and the Muslim world could not be set right overnight. Obama spent yesterday with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, saying “I thought it was very important to come to the place where Islam began.”
Al Jazeera broadcast what it said was an audio tape from Osama bin Laden 3 June, which condemned US policies in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. His deputy, Egyptian Ayman Al-Zawahiri, in another tape recording called on Egyptians to reject the Obama visit. In Jerusalem, officials said they would be watching the speech carefully. Tensions have risen recently between Israel and Washington on the subject of continuing West Bank settlements.
The US government has set up a special site for people to send in SMS comments on the speech, which the State Deptartment will translate into 13 languages. NYT, BBC, Al Jazeera, Jerusalem Post
