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Category: News & Opinion (General) Topic: History & Archaeology
Synopsis: Israel's Bank Leumi caught with their hands in the cookie jar
holding ₪947Mil in "holocaust" m
Source: Ha'aretz
Published: January 19, 2005 Author: Amiram Barkat
For Education and Discussion Only. Not for Commercial Use.


January 19, 2005
Israeli banks hold NIS 1b. of Holocaust victims
By Amiram Barkat


Holocaust survivor Michael Eisenbod in his Kiryat Motzkin home yesterday."I
think Israel should be as generous as the gentiles," he said. (Encho Gosh)
A Knesset committee slammed Israeli banks yesterday for "severe negligence" in
handling the accounts of thousands of Jews who perished in the Holocaust
totaling some NIS 1 billion.

Holocaust victims deposited the money in some 9,000 accounts in Israeli banks,
according to the Knesset Inquiry Committee for the Location and Restitution of
Assets of Holocaust Victims, which presented its report to the Knesset yesterday.

"There wasn't a deliberate system of concealing funds, but there was without a
doubt negligence in keeping the documents, foot dragging, obtuseness and
ignoring the heirs," said committee chairman MK Colette Avital (Labor).

The committee, which has been inquiring into Holocaust victims' bank accounts
in Israel for the past five years, said the banks were negligent in handling
the accounts and keeping the owners' records and trying to locate the heirs.
There may have been considerable additional funds that were not discovered,
the committee said, because the banks destroyed documents and failed to keep
records of the latent accounts.

The committee ruled that the banks will have to return about a third of the
money - some NIS 322 million - to the heirs of the Holocaust victims, if they
are traced. The state will have to return the remaining two thirds - NIS 586
million - because the banks transferred most of the funds to the British
Mandate and state in the 1940s and `50s.

If all the heirs are found, the five major banks will have to return some NIS
322 million, NIS 307 million of which must be returned by Bank Leumi. Mizrahi
Bank must return NIS 12.9 million, Bank Hapoalim NIS 1.7 million, and Israel
Discount Bank must return NIS 535,000.

However, the committee said it was highly probably that only a small percent
of the heirs will be located, so these sums are theoretical. The committee
recommended setting up a public body to handle heirs' claims quickly.

"If we don't reach an agreement with the banks and the treasury, we will have
to use legislation," Avital said.

The Banks' Association and Bank Leumi said that it was proved that the banks
in Israel do not hold assets today of Holocaust survivors. They said that
their financial liability derives only from the interest and linkage
differences on funds that the banks had transferred to the Custodian General.

However, head auditor Yehuda Barlev said Bank Leumi holds to this day 180
accounts that probably belonged to Holocaust victims. The bank denies this.

Committee members also lambasted the banks for their conduct during and after
the investigation.

"We had bitter arguments with the banks, which caused very many delays in the
committee's work," Avital said.

MK Ehud Ratzabi said "the banks' lawyers came to the Knesset and hurled
accusations at the MKs, as though they were on trial for rape."

The committee estimated the total funds in the 9,000 accounts at NIS 947
million. However, due to heavy pressure on the banks' part, the committee used
another way to calculate the value of the funds for which no heirs will be
found, which minimizes the sums by 80 to 90 percent.

The reason that the state must return most of the funds is that most of the
money was transferred to the British Mandate authorities during the Second
World War. Following the establishment of the State of Israel, the funds were
transferred to the Custodian General.

The committee found that Bank Leumi has been holding a large sum of money
belonging to Holocaust victims since 1949, which belongs to the state. The sum
was initially IL 1,793,000, which is worth some half a billion shekels today.

The report shows that the committee succeeded in locating only a small part of
the survivors' money. Only some 3,500 of the 9,000 accounts had any money at
all, mainly due to the banks' negligence and faulty documentation, in
violation of their own rules and regulations.

The report lashes out at Mercantile Discount Bank, formerly Barclays. The
auditors located some 3,000 latent accounts from the World War II era - more
than in Bank Leumi - but could not verify the identity of some 2,000 accounts
holders due to the disappearance of vital details. The committee accused the
bank of refusing to cooperate with it. "All the senior officials denied having
documents or relating to the subject and era being investigated," the report said.

In addition, the auditors said that contrary to bank regulations, the bank
failed to keep in its archives documents preceding 1963, and its branches did
not keep information of latent accounts that were written off.

Bank Hapoalim destroyed a very large quantity of material relevant to the
investigation long after the committee had started its inquiries.

"Our efforts to obtain the full bank reports of the closed accounts were
thwarted, we found nothing, in the head office, computer department, branches
or archives," read the report.

The auditors found that Bank Mizrahi did not pay interest rates on the latent
accounts that had money in them, but made sure to charge them with commissions
all these decades. Consequently, numerous accounts were overdrawn. Numerous
accounts had been closed and documents destroyed in violation of the
regulations to preserve old documents.

"In many cases old documents were destroyed, probably to make room in the
store room for newer ones," the auditors wrote. They commended Bank Discount
for its cooperation, but said many accounts from the Holocaust period could
not be located because the bank failed to keep records from before the 1960s.

Noah Flug, chairman of the umbrella organization for Israeli Holocaust
survivors' associations, said he hopes "the banks that sabotaged the
committee's work learn their lesson and display public and moral
responsibility and respect the committee's conclusions and implement them."

The Justice Ministry spokesman said the ministry and Custodian General support
returning the property to the heirs and will do everything they can to ensure it.

Finance Ministry sources said yesterday that "the funding sources and the
extent of the funds have not been determined yet. The cabinet will talk to the
Knesset and formulate a joint position on the subject."


FREE_ZUNDEL_NOW writes: "The Holoca$t Industry Jews should be ashamed but we
all know they have NOooooooooo shame to begin with. They are the first to cry
wolf, point fingers at government, companies and individuals who they claim
profited from the "holocaust", but I guarenf#@kingtee you, you will not hear a
peep from these miscreants when such corruption is coming from one of their
own. You won't see that ADL rat Foxman come out of his hole in usual fashion
demanding this or that. You won't see the Simon Wiesenthal crooks utter a word
of condemnation. Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL IN ON IT AND PROFITEERS OF THIS
SHAM INDUSTRY!!

It's pathetic and basically confirms what Ernst Zundel has been saying was
going on in Israel. It confirms everything critics of this industry have been
saying. Israel is a mafia hideout for criminals and holocaust profiteer
shysters --



Worldwide ERNST ZUNDEL RALLIES
February 3RD, 4TH & 5TH!!

ZUNDEL PRISON ART!!


""

Post Extras:
FREE_ZUNDEL_NOW
(insurgent)
01/20/05 02:07 PM
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