Minister of Communications David Amsalem today sent a letter to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit notifying him that he would approve the sale of Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ), even though he said that Mandelblit had not provided him with clarifications on the matter. "I decided to sign the agreement for the sale of Bezeq, simply in order to avoid harm to people who have unfortunately become victims of circumstances, due to Bezeq's current situation, to a large extent because of you," Amsalem wrote.
Amsalem delayed his signature on the deal because he said that as minister of communications, he was afraid to sign a deal that benefited Bezeq, thereby linking the matter to Case 4000, in which the prime minister is likely to stand trial because of his activity on behalf of Bezeq when he also held the position of minister of communications. Amsalem wanted to make sure that Mandelblit was authorizing him to sign the deal, and that he would not be faced with a similar plight. Last week, Searchlight announced that if it did not receive approval for the Bezeq deal, it would withdraw from it, which will cause unprecedented damage in the hundreds of millions of shekels for the shareholders in Internet Gold and B Communications.
"We are witnessing an awful situation in which shares and pension funds of innocent people are liable to suffer damage because of an irresponsible policy by many parties. Since the public good is more important to me than anything else and is at the head of my priorities, I will sign the sale in order to avoid damage to many worthy Israeli households," Amsalen said. "In any case, I still insist on getting a serious and detailed answer to the questions that that I sent you. In my humble opinion, this is your main function as attorney general, and I expect you to answer all of my questions to the point and as soon as possible."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 10, 2019
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