Three years ago, when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was still responsible for the Israel Land Administration (ILA), the 49-year lease on Sycamore Farm expired. The ILA leadership has two versions for the delay in renewing the lease for another 49 years.
One version claims that the ILA Southern District suspected that the land held in practice by Sycamore Farm was significantly larger than the area defined in the lease, due to "creeping annexations" of scores of dunam over the years. All attempts to clarify the matter with Gilad Sharon were rebuffed.
The second version claims that Gilad Sharon acted with total probity, and sought to renew the lease to Sycamore Farm, including an examination of the land, but the ILA dragged its feet in the matter until recently. The original lease to Sycamore Farm was signed in the early 1950s. It was a long-term lease with the Jewish National Fund (JNF) (the ILA did not yet exist), signed by a group of investors, some of them Australian, incorporated as Israeli sheep herders enterprises. The original lease was for 4,000 dunam (1,000 acres), on which the investors promised to raise at least 1,000 sheep. In the late 1960s, the investors gave up, and sought to sell their rights. The ILA, which had meanwhile taken over some of the JNF's responsibilities, contacted the Jewish Agency with an offer to use the land to supplement land grants for neighboring communities, but the Jewish Agency replied that it had no interest in the matter.
Ariel Sharon bought the leasing rights in 1972, following his discharge from the IDF, with the help of a loan from businessman Meshulam Riklis. Sharon bought the lease rights through Sycamore Agricultural Farm Ltd., owned by him and his late wife, Lily. The rights were transferred to a trustee in the early 1980s, due to conflicts of interest and the rules of the committee for preventing conflicts of interests of ministers. In 1989, the controlling shares in the company were transferred to Sharon's sons, Gilad and Omri.
A number of changes were due to be made in the lease as part of the transfer of rights in 1972. These included withdrawing 500 dunam (125 acres) for other ILA uses, reducing the lease to 3,500 dunam (875 acres), plus an additional 170 dunam (42.5 acres) of pasture, mostly along the river channels. In addition, the clause requiring the raising of 1,000 head of sheep was to be cancelled. Instead of paying rent on the basis of land value, it was henceforth to be paid according to ILA Council decisions on the type of land (rent on irrigated land was NIS 84 per dunam (NIS 336 per acre), while rent for husbandry or pasture was much less). Under the farm's water quota of 1.01 million cubic meters a year, half the land was irrigated (the norm is 600 cubic meters of water per dunam of irrigated land (2,400 cubic meters per acre)). In addition to the land in the contract, Sycamore Farm leased additional land over the years in temporary leases.
Over the years, especially following Sharon's appointment as Minister of Defense in 1982, security at Sycamore Farm was greatly enhanced, and areas were fenced in. As noted above, toward the end of the original 49-year lease period and the renewal of the lease for another 49 years, when Sharon was responsible for the ILA, questions arose about the compatibility of the land defined in the lease and the actual land. However, the renewal of the lease was delayed and no examination was carried out.
The ILA said in response, "As part of its usual practice when renewing leases, in this case too, the ILA is checking that the land actually held conforms to the land held in the contract.
"Mr. Gilad Sharon prepared a surveyor's map of the land held by them, and additions will be made to this map at our request.
"Over the next two weeks, we intend to tour the site, after which the facts on the ground will be clarified."
Adv. Yoram Raved declined to respond on behalf of Sycamore Farm.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 2, 2005