Investigative journalist David Bedein has once again noted the apparent conflict-of-interest relating to the planned withdrawal from Gaza in the upper echelons of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's administration.
Bedein's research reveals ties between PM Sharon's chief advisor Dov Weisglass and top P.A. officials who plan to build a resort in place of Jewish communities in Gush Katif after the residents are expelled from their homes.
In December 2002, Bedein's
Israel Resource News Agency
discovered that Weisglass, then the Director of the Prime Minister's Office, was engaged in private business. An attorney, Weisglass was listed in the Israel Corporate Registrar as the owner and operator of his law firm, Weisglass-Almagor and a business trust by a similar name. This was confirmed the following month by the Civil Service Commission.
Weisglass wrote to the commission that he had nothing to do with his former law firm and that he had sold all financial interests in his business. Supporting this claim, the Israel Corporate Authority in April 2003 reported that Weisglass had finally removed his name from his law firm in the Israel Corporate Authority records.
A year later, however, Bedein's agency uncovered what the Israel Civil Service Commission apparently did not know: Weisglass's name was still registered as the lawyer of record for two other firms which bore virtually the same company name and were located at the same corporate address.
According to Bedein's research, Weisglass's law firm and business trusts represent the financial interests of the Palestinian Authority, including Muhammad Rashid, the treasurer appointed by Yasser Arafat to manage the PLO-chief's elusive accounts, amounting to several billion dollars. In June 2003 Bedein's agency exposed fact that Weisglass's law firm and business also represent the Oasis casino in Jericho, partially owned by PLO security chief Jibril Rajoub, and by Yasser Arafat himself.
In May 2004, the Israel Civil Service Commission declared that this represented a conflict of interest for Weisglass and, in July, Weisglass resigned his position as Director of the Prime Minister's Office. Instead of leaving the public realm for his private entrepreneurial endeavors, however, Weisglass received permission from the Israel Civil Service Commission to assume a new position as "advisor" to PM Ariel Sharon. This, Bedein writes, effectively reinstated his previous power, minus only his official title.
"The highest echelons of the Israeli government are cognizant of the fact that Weisglass represents the business interests of Yasser Arafat," writes Bedein, "[yet] Weisglass was still allowed to continue to conduct negotiations on behalf of the state of Israel with all official levels of the Palestinian Authority and the United States government, even though Weisglass continues to represents the business interests of the Palestinian Authority."
According to the Palestinian Authority's tourist publication This Week In Palestine, plans are underway to build a new P.A.-run casino and resort for tourists in "Southern Gaza" - Gush Katif - on the ruins of the Jewish communities slated for removal under the Gaza withdrawal plan formulated by Weisglass.
Not only did Weisglass have a major say in engineering PM Sharon's withdrawal plan, he was also delegated by Sharon to negotiate for Israel with U.S. National Security Advisor Condeleeza Rice and with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell regarding unpublished details of the plan.
Weisglass's ties with P.A. figures are not only purely business-oriented. According to Israeli journalists Amos Har'el and Avi Yisacharov in their recently published book The Seventh War, Weisglass celebrated the electoral victory of Ariel Sharon in the company of Arafat's treasurer Muhammad Rashid on election night in February 2001.
"A legalized conflict of interest, Middle East style," sums up David Bedein.
Bedein's research reveals ties between PM Sharon's chief advisor Dov Weisglass and top P.A. officials who plan to build a resort in place of Jewish communities in Gush Katif after the residents are expelled from their homes.
In December 2002, Bedein's
Israel Resource News Agency
discovered that Weisglass, then the Director of the Prime Minister's Office, was engaged in private business. An attorney, Weisglass was listed in the Israel Corporate Registrar as the owner and operator of his law firm, Weisglass-Almagor and a business trust by a similar name. This was confirmed the following month by the Civil Service Commission.
Weisglass wrote to the commission that he had nothing to do with his former law firm and that he had sold all financial interests in his business. Supporting this claim, the Israel Corporate Authority in April 2003 reported that Weisglass had finally removed his name from his law firm in the Israel Corporate Authority records.
A year later, however, Bedein's agency uncovered what the Israel Civil Service Commission apparently did not know: Weisglass's name was still registered as the lawyer of record for two other firms which bore virtually the same company name and were located at the same corporate address.
According to Bedein's research, Weisglass's law firm and business trusts represent the financial interests of the Palestinian Authority, including Muhammad Rashid, the treasurer appointed by Yasser Arafat to manage the PLO-chief's elusive accounts, amounting to several billion dollars. In June 2003 Bedein's agency exposed fact that Weisglass's law firm and business also represent the Oasis casino in Jericho, partially owned by PLO security chief Jibril Rajoub, and by Yasser Arafat himself.
In May 2004, the Israel Civil Service Commission declared that this represented a conflict of interest for Weisglass and, in July, Weisglass resigned his position as Director of the Prime Minister's Office. Instead of leaving the public realm for his private entrepreneurial endeavors, however, Weisglass received permission from the Israel Civil Service Commission to assume a new position as "advisor" to PM Ariel Sharon. This, Bedein writes, effectively reinstated his previous power, minus only his official title.
"The highest echelons of the Israeli government are cognizant of the fact that Weisglass represents the business interests of Yasser Arafat," writes Bedein, "[yet] Weisglass was still allowed to continue to conduct negotiations on behalf of the state of Israel with all official levels of the Palestinian Authority and the United States government, even though Weisglass continues to represents the business interests of the Palestinian Authority."
According to the Palestinian Authority's tourist publication This Week In Palestine, plans are underway to build a new P.A.-run casino and resort for tourists in "Southern Gaza" - Gush Katif - on the ruins of the Jewish communities slated for removal under the Gaza withdrawal plan formulated by Weisglass.
Not only did Weisglass have a major say in engineering PM Sharon's withdrawal plan, he was also delegated by Sharon to negotiate for Israel with U.S. National Security Advisor Condeleeza Rice and with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell regarding unpublished details of the plan.
Weisglass's ties with P.A. figures are not only purely business-oriented. According to Israeli journalists Amos Har'el and Avi Yisacharov in their recently published book The Seventh War, Weisglass celebrated the electoral victory of Ariel Sharon in the company of Arafat's treasurer Muhammad Rashid on election night in February 2001.
"A legalized conflict of interest, Middle East style," sums up David Bedein.