Barak Re-Election Bid Still Under Cloud From 1999 Race
The campaign financing scandal from the 1999 elections continues to haunt Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at an inopportune time.
Managers of three non-profit organizations that actively worked in the campaign for Barak’s election in the May 1999 balloting refused to appear at the Knesset on Wednesday to defend themselves against allegations that they violated their declared purposes recorded at the registrar for associations.
The NPOs – Roved, Citizens Right and Left, and One Nation One Draft – were recently accused of serious irregularities and fraud in association with their campaigning activities by registrar Amiram Bogat in the Knesset State Control Committee.
A lawyer for Doron Cohen, Barak’s brother-in-law, and Eilon Rafaeli, both heads of Roved, said his clients could not take part in the Knesset discussions on the matter because the controversy is currently under police investigation and participation could jeopardize their case. Committee chairman Uzi Landau (Likud) convened the meeting and criticized association representatives for their continued tactic of “remaining silent,” since they “obviously have something to hide.” He said he regretted that Barak did not ask his brother-in-law to attend.
One Israel’s representatives on the committee protested what they termed as Landau’s use of the committee for “Likud election propaganda purposes.”
Used with Permission from International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.
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