"The Attorney General and the State Attorney’s Office deserve the utmost praise for not succumbing to public pressure to press the trigger and put those involved in the Bar-On affair on criminal trial. This would have led to the fall of the government, and I can state knowledgeably that it would also have led to bloodshed," said Adv. Dov Weisglass at the weekend at a University of Haifa conference marking the anniversary of the exposure of the Bar-On affair by television’s Channel 1. The conference was entitled "Putting Public Figures on Trial".
Nevertheless, Weisglass, a close associate of Minister of National Infrastructures Ariel Sharon, fiercely attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Justice Tzachi Hanegbi, and said: "Despite what I have said, I agree that Adv. Roni Bar-On’s appointment was improper, and he is the last of Israel’s 5.2 million citizens who can be considered suitable for the post.
"The Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice demonstrated scandalous behaviour in this affair. It is not a question of criminality, but of doing one’s job properly. They should undergo trial by the public. I’m told, that it was the Prime Minister who proposed opening a police investigation into the Bar On affair, which to my mind means that on this too he should not have been listened to. What was the result of the opening of a police investigation and the decision to close the files against those involved?
"The result has been that this bunch of people parades its acquittal, and does not see fit to deal with the public aspects of the affair, which could certainly lead to them losing their government posts. The matter was obscured by the shadow of the acquittals, without the essential point being examined."
State Attorney Edna Arbel, who took part in the conference, said that she still maintained her position that it was not possible to indict those involved in the affair. She said that "the file would not have passed the no case stage, or the prima facie evidence stage. To the best of my professional understanding, we would never have reached the stage of the Prime Minister’s testimony. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that no-one had more severe things to say about the affair than I did."
Commenting on the criticism directed against the State Attorney’s Office following the wave of acquittals in the courts of public figures charged with criminal offences, Arbel said: "Despite the acquittals of these public figures - it was proved in every case that the statements of the facts the State Attorney’s Office presented in court were correct, and even in the Ne’eman case there was no dispute over the facts."
Television reporter Ayala Hasson, who exposed the affair, said at the conference that the right course would apparently have been to set up a sate commission of enquiry. She said that the police did not allow its investigators to participate in the conference at the University. Deputy head of the investigations division Brigadier-General Ya’akov Grossman, who was one of the chief investigators in the Bar-On affair, was supposed to have taken part in the conference.
Hasson said that those involved in investigating the affair had either not been promoted lately or had been shoved aside. She said that "Major-General Sando Mazor was transferred to the police cocktails division when he was appointed deputy commander-in-chief; Rami Zutler was kicked upstairs to the post of president of the disciplinary court, and Grossman was not promoted to head of the investigations division."
Published by Israel's Business Arena January 25, 1998