The High Court for Justice will hear petitions Monday by the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel and MK Aryeh Eldad, demanding that President Shimon Peres give back a total of $320,000 in illegal contributions which he received in December 2004 when he ran for leadership of the Labor party. The petitioners note that the State Comptroller recommended in a report published after those elections that Peres give back the money.
Attorneys Yitzchak Bam and Michael Dvorin, who represented the petitioners, demanded further that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz instruct the President to return the money, or alternatively, that he instruct the Knesset's Ethics Committee to debate the subject. The committee decided that there was no public interest in the subject since Peres became President.
MK Eldad said: “Even if MK Peres has turned into President Peres, the president of Israel must not hold corrupt money and he must give it back to the state treasury. We ask the High Court to instruct him to give back the money and the Ethics Committee to keep on discussing the matter.”
The petition said that Peres received the $320,000 from three Jewish financiers who have financial interests in Israel. The State Ombudsman criticized Peres severely for his conduct in the matter.