The State Comptroller tells a Knesset committee that the Prime Minister defied the professionals' negative opinions and tried to promote a project in which his friend was involved. MKs ask whether such behavior is unethical; Rabbi Dov Lior answers.
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss told the Knesset Audit Committee on Tuesday that the Prime Minister bucked professional opinions in trying to promote a project in which his friend was involved.
The incident in question occurred in the years 2003-4 while Ehud Olmert served as Minister of Industry and Trade and Vice Prime Minister in the government of Ariel Sharon. The Aquaria Company - whose owners are not completely known to government officials - wished to build a huge family tourism project on the lands of Kibbutz Eilot, just north of Eilat.
Great Deal for Investors, But Not for the State
The benefits to the investors were to be unprecedented: a $30 million government grant, 1,300 dunams (320 acres) of land without tender, and tax benefits.
Though the then-Deputy Director of Israel's Investment Center, Limor Nissan, wrote at the time that the project's financial prospects were "negative" and not advisable, Olmert and his advisors attempted to push the project through.
It was also noted that the purpose of the project was changed in mid-process and was likely to include a casino - yet the approval process was not halted.
Comptroller vs. Olmert
State Comptroller Lindenstrauss recently issued a report very critical of Olmert and his staffers in the project, and defended the report in his appearance at the Knesset committee session today. Lindenstrauss said that it was not true that Olmert had met the project's representative, former Israel Air Force hero pilot Ran Pecker-Ronen, only twice. "The ties between the two were most extensive," Lindenstrauss said.
Lindenstrauss said that Olmert's handling of the matter was "most problematic. In addition to the investment that the State was requested - and agreed - to make of over 100 million shekels, there was also the matter of 1,300 dunams of land for the project - land on which Kibbutz Eilot sits, and on which, as per the Zionist vision, they planted date palms [and mango trees - ed.] They want to take the Kibbutz's planted land to make way for a tourism project."
Comptroller: It's Not the First Time
Lindenstrauss noted other projects that then-Minister Olmert promoted in this manner, such as one represented by his friend Uri Messer.
Boaz Anair of the Comptroller's Office told the Committee, "Via this project, a method is revealed. The independence of the professional wing is harmed. The professional people are supposed to do their work and make decisions regarding financial viability... Even if there are problems with bureacracy, this is not the way to deal with them. Such intervention [by the minister] creates inequality. The public administration wants to do its work, but the minister and his aides broadcast very clearly that they want to advance the project."
MK Eitan Raises Moral Issue
Committee Chairman MK Michael Eitan (Likud) raised a moral question. He said that if it's clear that the minister's intervention in a project is for personal reasons, this is clearly unacceptable. "But is it unacceptable to even ask the minister to intervene? I'm not sure that we can live without requests like this. Everyone knows that in Israel it's hard to move projects. If someone calls the minister in order to rush things up, is that bad? I don't know."
MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz) asked, "If the project is profitable for the country, is it improper for the minister to try to push the project along?"
Rabbi Lior Answers
IsraelNationalNews posed these questions to Rabbi Dov Lior, the Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Arba-Hevron. He said that if the professionals' opinion is that the project is unsound, but the minister disagrees, he has a right and even obligation to attempt to convince them otherwise. "If he does not do so, then how can he simply go over their heads? This is against the guidelines and regulations by which the organization works."
Regarding a situation in which a project is "stuck in bureacracy," Rabbi Lior said that if the minister feels the project is important for the country, then he may try to push it along. "But otherwise it would be forbidden," he said, "just like it is improper for an office clerk to put his friend's request ahead of others without justification."
May one ask an office clerk to do him a favor and place his request first? May one ask a minister to promote a particular project in which one has an interest? Rabbi Lior did not reply categorically, but said that in such situations, one must be wary of not "placing an obstacle before the blind" and possibly causing the clerk or minister to sin.
Eilot and Aquaria
In the end, the Aquaria project seems to have passed many hurdles on the way to final approval, though residents of Kibbutz Eilot told IsraelNationalNews that it currently is not approved.
It is known that the kibbutz objected to the project, but were convinced at one point by former Sharon-advisor Avigdor Yitzchaki to rescind their objections. Yitzchaki was also criticized in the Comptroller's report, for threatening the kibbutz members that Sharon would support a proposal to remove the fish cages - an industry in which Eilot was a partner - from the Eilat Gulf.