The Finance and Economic Committees of the Knesset held a joint session Monday afternoon on the Heftziba crisis. Heftziba is a giant construction company that has gone bankrupt, leaving hundreds of people whose fully paid-for apartments are not ready in the lurch.
Most of the stranded apartment owners bought homes in the Matityahu East project, which was held up by legal action taken by Peace Now. Peace Now is an extremist left-wing organization that has taken upon itself to destroy all Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.
The committee session was jointly chaired by MKs Gilad Erdan (Likud) and Stef Stas Misezhnikov (Yisrael Beiteinu), chairmen of the Economics and Finance Committees, respectively. Roni Chizkiyah, the Supervisor of Banks on behalf of the Bank of Israel, told the participating MKs and representatives of the banks, purchasers and Heftziba that some residents might find themselves with no solution, and that they might never see the money they laid out for their homes.
Strong accusations were made against the banks. MK Erdan said that despite his committee's requests, "no letter or document has been received from the banks detailing the number of people who were actually hurt by the company's collapse, nor any word on guarantees requested by the banks for the customers' money. The banks' behavior raises difficult question marks."
Shmuel, one of the 200 people who have "broken into" their property in order to save their money, said that Heftziba, with the banks' cooperation, had not arranged for bank guarantees for the purchasers' money, as required by law. Instead, the banks took a lesser role in accompanying the projects. The banks also did not comply with the requirement of ensuring that there were no legal problems with the land, as were in fact revealed in the Peace Now suit.
Representatives of the would-be residents told the committees that the banks have been refusing to talk with them. "As time goes on," one resident said, "the situation of those who bought gets worse and worse. Immediate action must be taken, by both the banks and the Housing Ministry, otherwise we will have to request welfare."
The Supervisor of the Banks, Roni Hezekiah, tried to shift the blame away from the banks: "Hundreds of thousands of apartments were built in the Heftziba method... There have been failures - not economic, but rather deception and theft. If not for that, the company would not have collapsed."
The top executive of Heftziba has fled Israel and is thought to be in London or elsewhere in Europe. His father has been questioned by police and is under house arrest, though he says he knows nothing of his son's alleged misdeeds.
"If no one would have stolen from Heftziba," Hezekiah said, "the projects would have been completed... The problems must be solved individually, not in general. We will accompany every purchaser as he deals with the bank until he receives his money back; I call on all the purchasers to turn to the Bank of Israel for the necessary help." He added that a solution will not be found for everyone, however.
Some MKs said that had the banks acted properly or in a timely fashion, the company would not have collapsed.
The above-mentioned resident Shmuel is leader of a group of 50 fellow purchasers engaged in a multi-front legal struggle. They, and 150 other families, have moved into their completed apartments, and have found piratical ways to supply water and electricity. While neither Heftziba, the police or the banks are demanding they leave, one group continues to be unable to make peace with their presence: Peace Now.
Peace Now has filed suit with the Supreme Court, claiming that the residents are in violation of a previous Court order preventing them from moving into the disputed property. The Court has ordered the residents to respond by this Thursday why they should not be forcibly evicted.
Shmuel explained, "We intend to claim that for the last 18 months, we have not violated the Court's order, even though the legal problems were not our responsibility. However, with Heftziba having gone bankrupt, the situation has changed, and we have moved in merely in order to ensure a claim on our property in the hope that we will not lose it."
Shmuel admitted that this claim is more of a request for mercy than a strong legal position. All sides are aware, however, that a decision to expel the residents would mean a forcible eviction involving thousands of policemen and sympathizers of the residents - a scenario that, it can be assumed, no one in Israel is anxious to see.