The investigation of nonprofit organizations active on behalf
of prime minister Ehud Barak during the last elections eight
months ago is widening. Sources in the Office of the Prime
Minster said that the feeling is that the Government
Secretary, attorney Yitzhak Herzog, will not be able to
continue in his position following publication of the State
Comptroller's report in a week-and-a-half.
Election campaign finance laws in Israel strictly limit the
amount of money that an individual can give towards the
election of a candidate or a party. There are also strict
limitations on campaign funding that may be accepted from
outside of Israel. The bulk of the campaign financing comes
from the State, and private sources of funds are strictly
controlled.
An approach that has been taken by both large political
parties is that various independent organizations are formed,
to work for various social and political goals which,
incidentally as it were, also promote the party of interest.
In order to do this legally, independence must be maintained
between the outside organizations and the campaign effort. In
the case of the previous elections, the allegations are that
many of the purportedly independent organizations with
interests that were close to Barak in fact had directors who
were closely identified with the Barak political campaign,
and in some cases direct campaign expenses were paid by the
outside organizations. If true, this constitutes a serious
violation of the law.
Two months ago Yoav Yitzchok, a reporter for the financial
daily Globes, published a special investigation which
revealed that five months before the elections Herzog, who
was active in Barak's election campaign, ordered a
professional survey to analyze the support for Barak among
Russian immigrants. The survey cost NIS 29 thousand (about
$7,000) according to the owner of the company that conducted
the survey, Aharon Fein. Yitzchok is also the investigative
reporter who broke the story about money paid to Israeli
President Ezer Weizman.
It is suspected that this sum was paid to the company in two
bank checks not issued by the campaign itself and that
although, as the receipt he received indicates, it was Herzog
who ordered the survey, his name does not appear on the
checks. The State Comptroller recently approached Fein to
examine the receipts. When Herzog learned of this, Fein
claims: "He was shocked, like one whose world had fallen
apart."
If those checks were actually used, the law was broken,
because the Law for the Subsidizing of Parties limits
personal contributions for candidates to NIS 1700 per donor
within a period of a year. The amount that Herzog allegedly
paid for conducting that survey was far in excess of the
amount that is permitted by law.
The State Comptroller has asked Yitzhak Herzog and Tal
Zilberstein, a businessman who was chairman of Barak's
election headquarters, to reply to various charges regarding
the nonprofit organizations. Herzog has hired a lawyer to
prepare the answers on the issue.
Immediately after publication of news of the investigation,
Michael Eitan demanded Herzog's dismissal from his rather
sensitive job. The Office of the Prime Minster said last week
that it would await the release of the State Comptroller's
findings.
Barak's confidants are convinced that the State Comptroller
will not find fault with the Prime Minister and will clear
him of all suspicions with respect to the independent
organizations. Barak's men maintain that everything was done
with honesty and integrity, and all the activity was in line
with the principle of freedom of expression and assembly.
A judicial team is currently preparing a legal opinion to try
to prevent the Labor party from having to pay any fine that
may be imposed. If a fine is indeed imposed, it is unclear
who will be held liable for its payment, because the One
Israel party is not a clear-cut entity. Though Barak would
like to dissolve the Labor Party in favor of One Israel, in
the meantime Labor is a legal entity while One Israel is
not.
