A poll presented on Voice of Israel today shows that most of the public - some 57% - feels that the media have exaggerated in their coverage of the Likud scandals as opposed to those in Labor. In light of these findings, here are two more matters of Labor corruption that have received less attention than might be warranted.
Haifa Likud activist Aviad Visuly has written to Moshe Mizrachi, head of the Investigations Bureau of Israel Police, in which he reminds him that Attorney-General Rubenstein long ago ordered the "immediately investigation" of complaints against Labor Party chief Amram Mitzna. The charges involve bribery, deceit, and breach of trust. Visuly also quotes Rubenstein as saying that complaints that involve the election campaign, as these do, must especially be investigated forthwith.
The complaint states that the A. Levy Construction Company granted Mitzna office space three months ago near its own offices, from which Mitzna ran his campaign to become head of the Labor Party. In exchange, the complaint states, Mitzna presented a request a month later to the Planning and Construction Board of Haifa, of which he is the Chairman, asking that a "substantial exception" be granted to the A. Levy company for its Galilee Horizon Twins construction project in Haifa. In the framework of that exception, Visuly continues, the company built an extra floor on the buildings without a permit. The complaint states that the extra story was built illegally and fraudulently, via a forged construction permit comprised of pages from various permits patched together. The complaint further states that Mitzna knew of the forgery, and was even pressured by MK Yehudit Naot to file a police complaint. A complaint was in fact filed, but Mitzna still presented the A. Levy Company's case to the Board, without informing the members of the forged permit. Neither did Board Chairman Mitzna inform his colleagues of his conflict of interest, namely, the fact that A. Levy had granted him office space.
Visuly closed his letter to Mizrachi with an urgent request to investigate, in accordance with the Attorney-General's instructions, these "grave suspicions of bribery, deceit, and breach of trust regarding Amram Mitzna and his election campaign," immediately. Copies of the letter were sent to Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein, Public Security Minister Uzi Landau, Police Chief Shlomo Aharonishki, and others. Visuly threatens to turn to the Supreme Court if his request is not fulfilled.
Another Labor scandal that is being largely overlooked is the demand by Non-Profit Associations Registrar Amiram Bogat for the closing of the "We All Support Mitzna" association. The association transferred one million shekels to Ehud Barak's election campaign, in contravention of its stated purposes - to support Mitzna in the Haifa elections - and failed to identify the sources of its funding. The association has appealed Bogat's decision, and a court in Nazareth will consider the appeal next week. It was also noted that State Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg had determined in the past that the association acted properly.
Haifa Likud activist Aviad Visuly has written to Moshe Mizrachi, head of the Investigations Bureau of Israel Police, in which he reminds him that Attorney-General Rubenstein long ago ordered the "immediately investigation" of complaints against Labor Party chief Amram Mitzna. The charges involve bribery, deceit, and breach of trust. Visuly also quotes Rubenstein as saying that complaints that involve the election campaign, as these do, must especially be investigated forthwith.
The complaint states that the A. Levy Construction Company granted Mitzna office space three months ago near its own offices, from which Mitzna ran his campaign to become head of the Labor Party. In exchange, the complaint states, Mitzna presented a request a month later to the Planning and Construction Board of Haifa, of which he is the Chairman, asking that a "substantial exception" be granted to the A. Levy company for its Galilee Horizon Twins construction project in Haifa. In the framework of that exception, Visuly continues, the company built an extra floor on the buildings without a permit. The complaint states that the extra story was built illegally and fraudulently, via a forged construction permit comprised of pages from various permits patched together. The complaint further states that Mitzna knew of the forgery, and was even pressured by MK Yehudit Naot to file a police complaint. A complaint was in fact filed, but Mitzna still presented the A. Levy Company's case to the Board, without informing the members of the forged permit. Neither did Board Chairman Mitzna inform his colleagues of his conflict of interest, namely, the fact that A. Levy had granted him office space.
Visuly closed his letter to Mizrachi with an urgent request to investigate, in accordance with the Attorney-General's instructions, these "grave suspicions of bribery, deceit, and breach of trust regarding Amram Mitzna and his election campaign," immediately. Copies of the letter were sent to Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein, Public Security Minister Uzi Landau, Police Chief Shlomo Aharonishki, and others. Visuly threatens to turn to the Supreme Court if his request is not fulfilled.
Another Labor scandal that is being largely overlooked is the demand by Non-Profit Associations Registrar Amiram Bogat for the closing of the "We All Support Mitzna" association. The association transferred one million shekels to Ehud Barak's election campaign, in contravention of its stated purposes - to support Mitzna in the Haifa elections - and failed to identify the sources of its funding. The association has appealed Bogat's decision, and a court in Nazareth will consider the appeal next week. It was also noted that State Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg had determined in the past that the association acted properly.