Yet more crooked news out of that murky trouble spot called Israel. Today's Times of London has offered us another wrinkle on the restitution business, to which we shall duly reply.
Times:
Israeli bank 'failed to return wartime cash and property' FROM ROSS DUNN IN JERUSALEM
THE Israeli parliament is investigating a claim that one of the country's largest banks failed to return to their original owners or their families the assets and contents of thousands of bank accounts and safes held during the Second World War. The charge, which is part of a wider inquiry into the fate of Holocaust-era assets, alleges that in 1954 Bank Leumi, or other unnamed Israeli bodies, opened and emptied bank safes in Israel that had been kept locked since 1938.
Zundelsite:
European Jews whose relatives had moved to Israel prior to the war or escaped or were shipped out of Europe via the Balkan route, Turkey, Bulgaria etc. have long and bitterly complained about the bureaucratic stonewalling they have encountered from Israeli government bodies and private agencies as well as the banks. The record of Israel in these matters is the worst of all nations.
Times:
Yesterday Michael Kleiner, a right-wing Opposition politician sitting on the parliamentary committee looking into the matter, said that he wanted an explanation of the whereabouts of the missing assets, believed to include jewellery and gold. "When we made our [initial] inquiry, [officials at Bank Leumi] did not give us straight answers. They tried to avoid the investigation," he told The Times.
Zundelsite:
That's par for the course! Thousands of Jews have died without ever receiving one shekel of the money due to them from dead relatives' accounts on deposit in Israeli banks or insurance companies. How many in the West know that?
Times:
About 3,000 safes and accounts held in British-mandated Palestine during the Second World War, belonging to both Jews and non-Jews living abroad, are believed to be involved. After British rule in Palestine ended in 1948, assets from the accounts were handed to the newly established State of Israel, but after 1954 they vanished.
Zundelsite:
When it comes to restitution and compensation settlement, Israel's record is abominable. The German Templar sect who owned large tracts of agricultural lands, hog farms, dairy cattle farms etc. and most of whose members had lived in Palestine for 80-90 years, many of whom had been there for three or four generations, were dispossessed and shipped out of Palestine by the British under Jewish Brigade and Jewish Palestinian police in the early 1940s. It took them almost 20 years to negotiate a deal with Israel. They were paid 1.65 for every 100 of assets, property etc. None were allowed to return from Australia to the land of their birth.
Times:
Mr Kleiner said the committee wanted to apply the same standards on Bank Leumi that had been imposed on Swiss banks, which were forced to pay compensation to the families of victims of the Holocaust for holding on to their assets after the war. He said that every individual account-holder, or his or her family, should be compensated and that the money should not be given away to any organisations.
Zundelsite:
Right on! All people wronged or robbed by Israel or Jewish groups must demand the Swiss or German levels of compensation from these people - beginning with the Palestinians!
Times:
"Many of them were victims of the Holocaust," Mr Kleiner said, "so everyone agrees the laws of limitation should not apply to them. I have asked for a public hearing; everybody who knows something, who has any suspicion [should come forward]." He said that Bank Leumi had been reluctant to co-operate and had agreed to allow a special investigator to examine the matter further only after the committee had threatened to force it to comply.
Zundelsite:
Right again! Laws of limitation should not apply to Jews or Israelis when it comes to Holocaust-related matters, especially crimes of blackmail, embezzlement and fraudulently made property or financial claims.
Times:
Mr Kleiner said that during a closed meeting of the committee, Bank Leumi officials had said that when the safes had been opened more recently, they were found to be empty. He said if someone had opened the safes and cleared the accounts without making records of what was inside, he or she was "a common thief". He said: "I don't know if the thief was the government or the bank, but whoever was responsible, an effort must be made to find him." Bank Leumi could not be reached for comment last night.
Zundelsite:
Imagine the wailing if the Swiss bankers or the long victimized Germans had come up with such an unlikely story! Empty safes! Give me a break!
When will the world wake up?
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Thought for the Day:
"Genius is but a greater aptitude for patience."
(Attributed to Georges Buffon}