Businessman David Appel is suspected of pressuring politicians to pass the Deri Law and adapt it to his needs, exploiting his connections with administration officials and civil service employees to promote his business in Israel and overseas and obstructing the investigation against ex-Minister of Transport Yitzhak Mordecai, whose trial is currently taking place. The suspicions were released for publication at “Globes” request.
Allegations against Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, and MK Reuven Rivlin, a candidate for a ministerial post in the new government, arose during the investigation conducted by the national police unit for the investigation of international crimes.
All the parties involved except for Sharon were questioned last week by the police. Appel, who was held for police questioning, has been interrogated a number of times in recent days on suspicion of bribery, fraud, and obstruction of justice. The police are also investigating Appel’s business connections with Omri and Gilad Sharon, Ariel Sharons’s sons.
Senior police sources say they have found clear indications of organized crime in Israel – support of powerful economic forces for politicians in exchange for promoting their personal interests. At the same time, the police believe they will have a hard time proving the allegations against those involved. According to the police sources, it has been very hard to prove bribery in Israel since the Weizman and Netanyahu cases.
The Deri Law affair
The Israel Police Force National Serious and International Crimes Unit has been investigating Appel’s political and business activity for over a year. Appel has been the focus of a number of complex police investigations in recent years, including the Itri yeshiva, Israel Land Administration (ILA), Migdalei Zohar, and other affairs.
The first allegation concerns the law for shortening prison terms by half, commonly know as the Deri Law, which passed the Knesset last week.
The police investigation focused on the line connecting Arye Deri, an Appel ally, who applied the political pressure outside of prison, and the politicians who passed the law in the Knesset. The investigators are trying to discover whether the pressure applied by Deri, Appel, and their allies, and the actions of the Knesset members were within the bounds of legitimate political activity.
Rivlin submitted and led the final version of the bill. Evidence gathered by the police investigation supports the suspicion that Appel financed a large part of Rivlin’s political activity for many years.
The police suspect that Rivlin acted to pass the Deri Law, referred to by many as the “Law for the Encouragement of Crime” in return for Appel’s support. The investigators suspect that Appel applied pressure to promote the law, which could help Deri, or even Appel himself, if later tried and convicted.
In recent weeks, investigators have attempted to discover whether the link between Appel and Rivlin exceeded the bounds of legitimate relations between a public servant and an interested group and whether the allegations against them constitute grounds for suspected bribery.
The Greek affair
The chief affair investigated over the past year is called “The Greek Affair”. Appel is suspected of attempting to exploit his political connections in a number of ways to unfreeze land he purchased on a Greek island for construction of a casino and hotels. The police estimate that if the construction is approved for the land, which belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church and is defined as an archeological site, Appel will make huge profits.
Towards the end of Netanyahu’s term as prime minister, the Greek Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Mayor of Athens visited Israel. Information in police hands indicates that one of Appel’s men, Norman Skolnick, was present at a meeting between then Minister of Foreign Affairs Ariel Sharon and the Greek deputy minister.
The meeting between the representatives of the two countries was an official one held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. According to police sources, the presence of a private person with economic interests at such a meeting, which probably enhanced Appel’s reputation with the Greeks, raises a suspicion of abuse of Sharon’s position and even breach of trust on Sharon’s part. The police have not yet decided whether to investigate Sharon in the affair.
During the same period, according to the police information, Olmert held a banquet in honor of his Athens colleague. It is suspected that Appel financed the Olmert-sponsored official banquet and attended it. The police are also investigating Olmert’s involvement in assisting a private person, apparently in order to promote his business.
It is suspected that Appel made contributions to Sharon for his Likud primary campaign and used his many political connections to strengthen support for Sharon in the Likud central committee and his election as head of the party. At the same time, the investigators found difficulty proving a clear connection between Appel’s support of Sharon and the meeting, without which the basis for proving bribery is insufficient.
The police believe that the sponsorship granted by Olmert to the banquet financed by Appel deviated from accepted norms; it is unclear, however, whether Olmert received any recompense from Appel.
The Yitzhak Mordecai Affair
The third case concerns alleged obstruction of a police investigation against former Minister of Transport Yitzhak Mordecai, currently on trial for indecent acts and sexual harassment of three women.
The first complainant against Mordecai, who served as his clerk in the Ministry of Transport, originally approached Knesset chairman Avrum Burg and MK Zahava Gal-On. Details of the affair, which were published a few weeks ago in the “Yediot Ahronot” daily and were investigated by the police, indicate that Burg related the complainant’s story to Rivlin. It is suspected that Rivlin told Appel about the complainant, and Mordecai heard about the matter for the first time from Appel.
The police suspect that Rivlin returned to Burg and asked him for more details about the complaint. The police are investigating whether their investigation in the matter was actually obstructed and an attempt made to convince her to retract her complaint following its discovery, or whether the conversations between those involved amounted to casual conversation or gossip.
It is worthy noting that the affair was extensively covered in the media and all the suspicions, together with the complainant’s story, were published in detail the day after the police complaint was filed against Mordecai.
Careful comments
The police investigation against Appel has continued for over a year. The investigation was led by the unit commander Major General Moshe Mizrahi, who was recently appointed to head the investigative division, and Chief Superintendent Moshe Levin, who replaced Mizrahi as unit commander. The investigators secretly monitored Appel’s activity in Israel and overseas for months.
The investigation was revealed at the end of last week. Police investigators detained Appel for questioning, searched his home and office, and took him to police unit offices in Petah Tikva. Rivlin and Olmert were summoned for questioning at the same time. Appel, who was released on bail at the end of his interrogation, was interrogated again in the past few days.
With the report of the investigation, the Petah Tikva Magistrates Court issued a sweeping injunction at the request of the police against reporting details of the affair, including the very fact of the investigation and the injunction itself. Following the “Globes” request to the Court, the injunction was removed.
The heads of the investigation and the police are being very careful concerning the investigation, and it is reasonable to assume that their recommendations will be similarly cautious, due to the involvement of high-ranking politicians in the affair and the new political reality that has placed those involved in the forefront of Israeli politics. The investigative strategy has also taken the expected media storm following reports of the affair into account.
In off-the-record talks, police sources tried to downplay expectations regarding the results of the investigation, possibly fearing a lack of proportion between the red-letter headlines and the evidence in the hands of the investigators.
On the one hand, the police speak harshly of the political conduct of those involved in the affair, which they consider borders on bribery and breach of trust. “The affair shows clear signs of organized crime in Israel,” say sources involved in the investigation. On the other hand, it is clear to the investigators that they will have difficulty proving the criminal suspicions.
Those involved in the affair are expected to be re-interrogated in the coming days, together with less well-known parties. Failing dramatic developments in the affair, the investigators are expected to begin preparing the evidence and their recommendations within a few weeks.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on February 22, 2001