Holyland affair
The Holyland Affair denotes a great deal of corruption surrounding the Holyland luxury housing complex of six large residential towers and an adjacent high-rise apartment building on a hill in the south of the Malcha district of Jerusalem near an elevated road. Intended to officials of the city council and other authorities bribes amounting to the equivalent of at least 15 million US dollars have been paid. The affair is considered the largest bribery scandal in the history of the State of Israel .
Start of the project
For the first time in Jerusalem in 1993 the ideas of a large residential project appeared, the name of which was derived from the name of the Holyland Hotel . In 1994, major infrastructure expansion plans were announced for Jerusalem, when Ehud Olmert had already been mayor of the city for a year. In 1996, Urban Engineer Uri Ben-Asher presented the Holyland Project to the City Planning and Development Committee. For tourism, the complex should consist of a few hotels and a small number of individual houses. The driving businessman behind the project was Hillel Charney . Deputy Mayor Uri Lupolanski chaired the city committee. The necessary building site was made available in consultation with the residents of Ramat Sharett over the next few years.
In 2000 the project could not see any great progress. The chances of realization increased, however, because the number of tourists grew again. Olmert had Ben-Asher replaced by the new star architect Uri Schitrit . When the Second Intifada came in 2001 , Hillel Cherney wanted to disappear with empty hotels and no investment funds. But then, in 2002, Cherney presented a new concept for the project: no more hotels and instead luxury residential facilities. Schitrit initially opposed the new concept, but gave up his resistance after a year.
Background for the permits
Cherney, who also ran the Manara Cliff project at Kiryat Shmona in Israel , contacted the entrepreneur Meir Rabin . Rabin established the local relationships with the officials who were to receive the bribes for the building permits. The actual handover of the money was carried out by the employee Eliyahu Hasson of the Holyland Society. The National Fraud Unit kept records of who the payments should go to in his office.
The lawyer Uri Messer established further contacts with the city administration, which also included the payment of bribes . Messer has been a confidante and friend of Ehud Olmert for many years. Messer was arrested on April 6, 2010. On April 8, 2010, another acquaintance of Ehmut Olmert, businessman Avigdor Kelner , was arrested. He was suspected of bribing city officials. In this context, the offices of the Polar Investments company , which had acquired the Holyland project, were raided. The company is headed by Uri Shani , who was formerly head of the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon .
The police obtained their knowledge in part from a key witness who gave more and more details and people. Bribes were not only given to the city officials to enlarge the building site, but also to keep the property tax down. Specifically, the building area increased from an initial 12,000 square meters to 320,000 square meters. In addition, the property tax to be paid was reduced from $ 57 million to only $ 19 million.
A tax audit without consequences
The lawyer Edna Arbel worked as a public prosecutor in 1996 in an investigation into the Holyland project. Yael Shavit was at the time investigating a tax affair with the investigation into a tax estimate for the project. It was suspected that this tax estimate should not be investigated.
Shavit's investigation revealed that the project had a tax estimate of $ 12 million. This estimate came from the management of the project and was accepted by the tax authorities. However, this led to the suspicion that this estimate did not correspond to the real value of the building area of the project. Towards the end of 1996, Arbel opened an investigation on suspicion of a criminal act by the responsible tax officer Doron Levy and other tax officers. A few months later, there was a government tax estimate of $ 100 million on the area of the project. The police investigation into the matter continued for a year, then the case against Levy and others was dropped.
Levy denied all suspicions against him and claimed that the appraisal of the project would have been correct under the conditions at the time. Arbel has since become a Supreme Court judge . She bought one of the project's residential complexes in 2002 shortly after the public sale of the project's residential units began. On April 12, 2010, it became known that one of the police officers involved in the investigation into the tax officials had been bribed by $ 300,000 for terminating the investigation. A spokesman for the Supreme Court said on the matter at the time that Judge Arbel could no longer remember the details of the investigation.
A former mayor of Jerusalem is arrested
Uri Lupolianski was Deputy Mayor under Mayor Ehud Olmert until 2003, when he became his successor until 2008. On April 14, 2010, he was arrested because he was suspected of having received bribes equivalent to around 600,000 euros for the Holyland project. In 1976 he founded the charity Jad Sarah (German: Sarahs Hand), taking the name of his grandmother, who died in the Nazi mass murder. In 2010 this organization had around 6,000 helpers who take care of old and sick people. The allegation was that Lupolianski should have received the bribe through this organization. The organization denied this accusation.
On April 18, 2010, the Rishon Court released LeZion Lupolianski from custody.
Olmert denies taking bribes
On April 16, 2010, Olmert announced in a press conference that he had initially supported the Holyland project. But he did not participate in the later changes to the project. These changes took place when he was no longer mayor of Jerusalem. He never took bribes in this context either. These allegations are character assassination . The police based their suspicions against Olmert on an informant who was not named. Eliyahu Hasson of Holyland had also shown documents marked EO in public. When asked what these initials mean, he didn't answer.
On April 18, 2010 it was announced that the former head of Olmert's office, Shula Zaken , might make herself available as a witness against Olmert for the prosecution.
On May 30, 2010, Olmert was interrogated again for eight hours by the investigative commission in Lod . Questions related to the Holyland Project concerned suspected fraud, bribery, breach of trust and money laundering. He was also told that he would be interrogated again the following week. In May 2014, Olmert was sentenced to six years in prison for this. In another case of bribery, he was sentenced to an additional eight months in prison in May 2015.
Expansion of the investigation
The investigation into the Holyland affair has drawn so heavily on the National Fraud Squad in Israel that other investigations have had to be closed for the time being. 140 investigators have now been used in the affair. The duration of the study was extended by six weeks. This decision was made by the chief prosecutor Moshe Lador and the chief of the investigative department of the police Yoav Segalovich. In the meantime, a city council of Jerusalem belonging to the Shas party has also been arrested.
Further arrests after urgent suspicion
On April 21 and 22, 2010, additional suspects were arrested. On April 21st, the head of the largest bank in Israel - Bank Hapoalim - Dan Dankner was arrested. Dankner was suspected of paying bribes in a land sale between the Israeli salt industry and the state. The other arrested was formerly the director of the Israeli land administration, Ya'akov Efrati . He was accused of accepting bribes.
On April 22, Yehoshua Pollack and Eli Simchayof , both former deputy mayors of Jerusalem, were arrested. According to the police, the two were the key figures in the affair. Pollack was the right hand man of the Mayor of Jerusalem Uri Lupolianski. He is said to have not only accepted bribes, but also to have been involved in money laundering, in establishing contacts and in criminal conspiracy.
Numerous corruption allegations against Meir Rabin
Meir Rabin was in custody at the end of April 2010 and was extended for a further six days. Meanwhile, on April 28, 2010, the police announced that Rabin was suspected of being involved in eighteen corruption cases. However, only four or five of these would relate to real estate cases.
Rabin's attorney then announced that the police were pressuring his client to stand as a witness for the prosecution in the Holyland affair. In this context, the lawyer also mentioned the name of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman . The police asked Rabin about payments to Lieberman. Furthermore, according to the lawyer Giora Zilberstein , Rabin would have been questioned about monetary payments to the minister without portfolio Ruhama Avraham Balila , the former minister of the Likud party Dan Nave and the leader of the Schas party Rabbi Ovadia Josef .
The lawyer Zilberstein replied to these statements that these payments were not related to the Holyland affair. The named refused any contact with Rabin. The police pointed out that Rabin's lawyer would be solely responsible for naming the names. The names were not mentioned in the police statements about the interrogation of Rabin in custody.
Shula Zaken under suspicion of corruption
The police suspected Shula Zaken, the former head of the office of Ehud Olmert, to have paid Olmert the equivalent of more than 270,000 US dollars in bribe. She herself took bribes to support the Holyland project. On May 2, 2010, the police also informed the Rishon LeZion Magistrate Court that Zaken had received $ 2,690 worth of jewels and a painting worth $ 1,345. Her pre-trial detention was also extended for another ten days.
They were also charged with bribing the city architect Uri Shetrit . The police also suspected her of obstructing the investigation into the affair. You have turned to the businessman Shmuel Dechner and asked him not to report anything to the police about his relationship with Olmert's lawyer Uri Messer. She is also said to have asked him not to testify about the evidence that Olmert was involved in the corruption affair.
Investigative officials suspected Zaken of having received valuable furniture and payments to members of her family. She couldn't remember how the money was paid or who it came from. However, the investigators said they could provide evidence of some sources of the payments. Her lawyer Micha Fettman declined to comment on these allegations.
Demonstration against the Holyland development
On July 15, 2010, a demonstration took place against the planning of the Holyland development in the south of Jerusalem on the border with the Holyland complex. Hundreds of protesters followed the call of the Society for the Protection of Nature Israel (SPNI) and the Responsible Planning Coalition under the slogan No to the Holyland State . SPNI protesters had come to the demonstration in seven buses from different parts of the country.
Among the speakers at the rally were former Interior Minister Meir Schitrit , the representative of the Labor Party Eitan Cabel , the representative of the National Union Arye Eldad , the representative of the Chadash party Dov Henin , the deputy mayor of Jerusalem Naomi Tzur and the director of environmental protection of the SPNI Nir Papai.
The demonstrators carried signs with the slogans Separate planning and approval , Stop corruption and quality of life not only for the rich - After the demonstration, 32 representatives from various organizations signed a petition to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to reform planning law. However, in early July the government's cabinet rejected any change in planning law.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans-Christian Rößler, bribes for the luxury settlement, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of April 16, 2010
- ↑ Peggy Cidor, Corridors of Power: How the Holyland project came about, in: Jerusalem Post on 16 April 2010.
- ↑ Former Prime Minister Olmert again suspected of corruption scandal, in: the Standard of April 15, 2010
- ↑ Olmert aide arrested in serious corruption affair. In: YnetNews. April 7, 2010
- ↑ Tomer Zarchin: Former Olmert aide remanded as corruption evidence mounts. In: Haaretz. April 13, 2010 ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Tomer Zarchin: Second Olmert aide held in new corruption case. In: Haaretz. April 9, 2010
- ↑ Michael Borgstede: Everything is corrupt in the Holy City. In: The world. April 16, 2010 .
- ↑ Shuki Sadeh: High court justice owns apartment in Holyland project. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Haaretz. April 15, 2010
- ^ Peter Münch, Smeary Business on Holy Ground, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung of April 17, 2004
- ↑ David Horovitz, Analysis: Say it ain't so, Uri, in: Jerusalem Post, April 15, 2010
- ↑ Tomer Zarchin, Court releases ex-Jerusalem mayor Lupolianski to house arrest, in: Haaretz from April 18, 2010 ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Aviad Glickman, Olmert denies involvement in Holyland scandal, in; YnetNews of April 15, 2010
- ^ Eli Senyor, Olmert cited as 'senior official' in Holyland affair, in: YnetNews of April 15, 2010
- ↑ Aviad Glickman, Officials: Zaken may turn state witness in Holyland affair, in: YnetNews, April 18, 2010
- ↑ Eli Senyor, Olmert questioned for 8 hours over Holyland affair, in: Ynetnews of May 30, 2010
- ↑ Six years in prison for Olmert. in TAZ.de on May 13, 2014
- ↑ Another eight months for Olmert. in TAZ.de on May 25, 2015
- ↑ Tomer Zarchin, Court releases ex-Jerusalem mayor Lupolianski to house arrest, in: Haaretz from April 18, 2010 ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ her. Olmert complains of character assassination, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of April 17, 2010
- ↑ Largest bank in Israel: Bank Hapoalim
- ↑ Tomer Zarchin, Court extends remand of three Holyland graft suspects, in: Haaretz from April 22, 2010 ( Memento of the original from April 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Tomer Zarchin, Police: Holyland suspect involved in 18 corruption affairs, in: Haaretz of April 28, 2010 ( Memento of the original of April 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ in YnetNews of May 2, 2010: Eli Senyor, Police: Zaken gave Olmert more than NIS 1M
- ^ Ron Friedman, Hundreds protest 'Holyland planning reform', Jerusalem Post Online, July 15, 2010
