How the Israeli gov't rewards land thieves
http://972mag.com/how-the-israeli-govt-rewards-land-thieves/90703/
A few months ago, I wrote about the deceit allegedly carried out by the Beit El Yeshiva in Jabel Artis (“Givat HaUlpana”), where it sold and rented apartments on land it did not own, and which it knew it had no right to sell. Recently, Yesh Din petitioned (Hebrew) the HCJ, on behalf of the residents of Dura Al Qara, against the police decision to close the investigation of Yoel Tzur, CEO of the Company for Developing Beit El’s Yeshiva Complex, who admitted during his interrogation that he began building in Jabel Artis knowing the land was not his to build on.
On April 13, the news site News1 (Hebrew) exposed what the head of the yeshiva, Zalman Baruch Melamed, said in a closed discussion. From what Melamed said, it appears the Netanyahu government promised to compensate the yeshiva for the evacuation of Givat HaUlpana, and that the money is now reaching the yeshiva. Melamed, as quoted by News1, said that the government promised the yeshiva 30 apartments, building permits for 300 more apartments and “another payment” for building the yeshiva a new school building. In return, Melamed promised that the evacuation would take place without violence.
The funds, said Melamed, were transferred recently – and hereby lies an interesting story. A few weeks back, MK David Rotem (Ha’Likud Be’itenu) pulled every trick in the book to prevent the Freedom of Information Law from being applied to the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization. While Rotem was delaying, another settler – Nissan Slumianski of Ha’Bait Ha’Yehudi, chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee – transferred the funds without the MKs knowing what the money was for. It now turns out both of them had something to hide: according to Melamed, of those 177 million, 23 million was earmarked for the Beit El Yeshiva.
This is what the rule of law looks like: criminals unlawfully seize land, sell apartments which do not belong to them, and when the theft is exposed in court, the government not only refrains from indicting the criminals – the police and the prosecution are, after all, a part of the executive branch of government – it even compensates them for their losses. And to ensure that the citizens won’t know what the government is doing with their taxes, it puts the money transfer under a sort of gag order. When the courts order its removal, MKs loyal to the government and the Beit El Yeshiva do everything possible to delay, using every dirty trick conceivable.
This kind of blatant corruption goes on almost unnoticed along the path of the apartheid picnic yet Holocaust survivors get scraps. You can point this out to the knob heads and all they'll do is make excuses.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/113462454
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