In 1979 the Israeli Knesset passed a law that said that any
public servant who receives a gift in the line of his duty
must turn it over to the State. The law and its regulations
are very clear, and very encompassing: it is the same
whether the worker himself receives the gift, or his or her
spouse, or a child who lives with them. The gift is State
property and must be turned over.
The subject of gift giving to public servants was one that
the State Comptroller studied and included in his most
recent report, released last week. The Comptroller found
that in almost 20 years, from the time the law was
implemented until September 1999, a grand total of 310 gifts
were reported as having been received by all the prime
ministers, ministers, their assistants and so on. In the
subsequent nine months, however, some 2,500 gifts were
reported, mostly by former ministers of defense and
directors of the Ministry of Defense.
It may seem odd to the casual reader that the particular
date of September 1999 was chosen as a watershed. However,
the reason is that in that month, former prime minister
Binyamin Netanyahu was very publicly investigated for what
he did with the many gifts that he received in his three
years as prime minister. The press was notified when
Netanyahu was called in for questioning, and photographed
him coming and going. Netanyahu and his wife were called in
for questioning for several eight-hour days. Long hours were
spent on questions about a cheap pin that Mrs. Netanyahu
received from a voluntary organization.
In the end, Netanyahu was not charged with any crime in this
connection. In fact, Netanyahu had prepared 121 crates with
over 1,000 gifts that he received which he turned over to
the General Caretaker, as provided by law. Yet he was
punished with loss of time and invasion of privacy, and that
was over a law that had never been observed in the 20 years
since it was passed.
There was plenty of justified criticism of Netanyahu. For
example, a visit he made to New York City in September 1998
cost the Israeli taxpayer almost $400,000. The entire
subject of foreign travel was found to be rife with abuses
by many different offices and agencies. The administration
of the Israeli Courts, for example, sent a delegation of
seven to Italy for sports competition in the summer of
1999!
Yet there seems to have been something special against
Netanyahu. In addition to the fact that he was investigated
for breaking a law that no one had previously observed, his
investigation received a tremendous amount of publicity,
apparently arranged by someone in the police investigative
unit, since no one else would have known exactly when
Netanyahu was actually being questioned at the police
offices.
In a contrast that was noted by Netanyahu himself last week,
Netanyahu's successor as prime minister, Ehud Barak, is also
being investigated for something that the Comptroller
characterized as a serious threat to the rule of law. Yet
his trips to the investigators are virtually ignored by the
press.
The contrast should worry anyone concerned about the
integrity of judicial processes in Israel.
