May 2019 Activity Summary

For further information www.mqg.org.il

Petitioning the High Court of Justice against postponing the PM’s hearing

As if all the gifts received – according to File 1000 suspicions – by the PM were not enough, now he is about to receive yet another gift: postponing his hearing. We petitioned the High Court of Justice against the Attorney General’s decision to postpone the hearing. If it was about an “ordinary” suspect, then probably an indictment would have already submitted. The Attorney General’s decision of postponing the hearing is definitely unlikely and might provide the PM with the opportunity of evading law. Already prior to the 20^th Knesset’s dissolution the PM had generated heavy pressure on the Attorney General in order to prevent filing the indictment, subject to a hearing, before the elections. In the meanwhile the Attorney General confirmed Netanyahu’s request not to submit the investigation’s materials to any of the suspects and to postpone the hearing to July 7^th 2019. However, it did not end there: also after the elections the PM continued applying various maneuvers for delaying his prosecution, including his attorneys’ repeating refusal to receive the investigation materials and to start preparing for the hearing. In spite of all of these facts, the Attorney General consented to postpone the hearing, once again, by three more months while simultaneously a legislation that will prevent Netayahu’s indictment is being promoted at full power. Instead of treating the suspect as should be done in such cases, the Attorney General grants him gifts. We contacted the AG several times regarding this issue and also demanded from him to apply the hearing promptly given the attempts to promote the Immunity Law.  Since he failed to do so, we have petitioned the High Court of Justice.

 

Petitioning the High Court of Justice: a senior employee at the National Insurance Institute is in a conflict of interests, the Public loses hundreds of millions – and the State does nothing?

The 2017 State Comptroller’s Report described an upsetting reality by which the National Insurance Institute had not exhausted the financial potential of claims submitted to insurance companies, this way causing losses of hundreds of millions of Public money. Among other issues, the report mentioned an agreement between NII and Eliyahu insurance company. The report stated that NII’s legal counsel, Adv. Rosenzweig, was personally acquainted with Eliyahu‘s controlling shareholder and therefore acted as not according to proper administration rules and in a situation suspected of a conflict of interests. According to the Comptroller, it is about a disciplinary offense if not graver. The Comptroller’s office evaluated the sum given up by the NII just in this agreement with Eliyahu reached ILS 35 million. The Comptroller submitted the relevant data to the Attorney General of Israel in order to have his check of whether criminal and disciplinary offenses had been committed. Though the six months allotted to the AG for consolidating a decision had passed already, nothing has advanced in any aspect of this issue. As if not serious enough, at a certain stage the AG decided that Rosenzweig should not be involved in this subject and the treatment of such claims would be someone else’s duty. Yet, according to information we have received, there is an alleged suspicion that Rosenzweig still continues indirectly to deal with the issue. Since this whole failure deserves a much more serious treatment, we petitioned the High Court of Justice against the NII as well as the AG and demanded that this affair will be thoroughly investigated and handled.

 

We demanded from the Attorney General of Israel to complete investigations in the Submarines Affair

In early April it was reported that the State Comptroller submitted to the Attorney General of Israel materials collected within the proceedings executed by the PM in front of the Committee for Giving Permits to Ministers (as part of his application to have his legal expenses financed by donators). According to reports, these materials raised concerns of criminal offenses by the PM, essential contradictions in what he said to the Committee already in 2009, and a conduct pattern of submitting only partial information by the PM regarding his relations with his cousin Nathan Milikovsky. Reminder: following the uncovering of the approval granted to the submarines sale deal between Germany and Egypt and the exposure of the PM’s business connections with his cousin and the shares he had in GraphTech, it is for several times now that we have contacted the AG in demand to order investigation completions in File 3000. Currently, regarding the State Comptroller’s new information and the PM’s avoidance of yet another meeting with the Committee and of revealing information about his business connections with his cousin, the necessity of investigation completions has become clearer. This is the reason for our demand from the Attorney General to immediately order an investigation completion in the affair.

 

We demanded from the Minister of Welfare and Social Services to seriously relate to the Disasters in Construction Sites issue

Such disasters have become more prevalent recently, so much so that the phenomenon can be regarded as true national calamity. Just over the last month there occurred several accidents, in one of which four employees were killed. Already in 2016 we demanded from Haim Katz, Minister of Welfare who is also in charge of the Security and Occupational Health Administration, to examine this administration’s conduct. Three years ago we’d already found that there were only 18 inspectors in charge of not less than 130,000 construction sites! However, instead of tending the problem, according to recent report the inspectors’ number – that obviously should have been increased – decreased to 13. And the Israeli society pays with blood. What could have been repaired already then, must be taken care of now. We wrote again to the Minister of Welfare, demanding to establish a special committee that will examine the conduct of the Ministry’s inspection array instead of making do with just a police investigation. This done, the Ministry should initiate ground-breaking reforms for the sake of preventing the next disaster.

 

Demanding from the Attorney General to check the reasons for the Prosecution’s prevention of former Police Inspector General Danino’s interrogation

Recent information related to the new report issued by the Prosecution’s Audit Commission. According to this information, the Commissioner found out that the Prosecution’s upper echelons including the current State Prosecutor, the former Deputy State Prosecutor and head of the Police Department for Internal Investigations prevented the examination of complaints they received concerning “special” relations between former Inspector General Yohanan Danino and a woman officer dubbed TS’. All this was happening while an examination had been applied concerning similar complaints against another senior officer. The Commissioner argued that such a selective checking procedure, tainted by nepotism and extraneous considerations and without presenting any reasonable explanation to the decision, is unacceptable. We demanded from the Attorney General to instruct a thorough investigation of the issues surfaced in the report, including the selective enforcement procedure granted to the former Police Inspector General.

 

More from the Movement Desk for this month

Before the Knesset’s dissolution is implemented, we have demanded from the parties’ leaders to reject this act for its being the wasting of ILS 2.5 billion of public money only out of political whims. * During the coalition negotiations we demanded from the PM to maintain up to just 18 ministers in any government he will assemble; in addition, we warned the Attorney General that assimilating any personal benefit into a coalition agreement could be regarded as a criminal offense; also in context of the coalition negotiations we demanded from the AG to refrain from confirming again the ministerial appointment of the current Minister of the Interior Arieh Deri for the reason of his being a convicted criminal. * We demanded from the Committee for Giving Permits to Ministers to reject The PM’s request to approve donators’ financing of his legal expenses. Since Netanyahu refuses time and again to submit information asked for by the Committee, there is no reason to accept his request. We further demanded from the Committee to file contempt of court proceeding against Netanyahu due to his refusal of keeping the High Court ruling that he submits relevant financial information to the Committee.