Last update - 00:00 22/02/2007
Zelekha says political, business leaders setting out to vilify him
By Gidi Weitz, Haaretz Correspondent
Finance Ministry Accountant General Yaron Zelekha has fiercely criticized the governmental norms that prevail in Israel and said the violators have been doing their most to vilify him and his family.
In an interview with Haaretz Magazine, Zelekha had harsh words for the conduct of senior politicians such as Olmert, who is under suspicion for improperly intervening in the sale of Bank Leumi, and former prime minister Ariel Sharon. He also took to task leading businessmen such as Eliezer Fishman and the Ofer brothers.
Zelekha said he and his family are "under attack."
"My life and my family's life have not been easy in the recent past," he said. "The 'heroes' of the affairs that have been exposed lately launched a violent and brutal campaign of vilification and delegitimization against us, and are moving heaven and earth in efforts to slander us. We are under attack. If we were convenient for them we might even get compliments in the press .... But then we would know deep down that we had betrayed the trust that was placed in us."
Zelekha and his family were threatened in an anonymous phone call that has left them under the protection of the Shin Bet security service for the past few weeks. Zelekha has also been the target of verbal attacks, as when Olmert accused him several months ago of subversion.
Safeguarding other people's money has made the 37-year-old Zelekha, who functions as the country's treasurer, the scourge of the last two prime ministers and of powerful owners of capital in Israel.
Over the past three years there have been several attempts to get Zelekha to resign due to threats or defamatory comments, he said.
Two months after Zelekha became accountant general, people began to call openly for his ouster. Treasury officials have also campaigned against him.
Zelekha has been accused of "throwing a wrench in the works" of the economy. The Prime Minister's Office was already planning steps to wrest power from him by creating a tenders committee to handle national projects, which would operate independent of the Finance Ministry.