Last update - 00:00 11/06/2007
Kibbutzim pay members' Labor fees, defying watchdog
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent
The Kibbutz Movement is paying the registration fees for hundreds of kibbutz members who joined the Labor Party, in defiance of the state comptroller's ruling that every registrant must pay the fee out of his own pocket.
Haaretz has learned that several kibbutzim pay the Labor Party, then deduct the payment from the fees the kibbutz has to forward to the Kibbutz Movement. Labor's secretary general, MK Eitan Cabel, denied this report.
In the past, it was customary for the kibbutzim, as cooperative associations, to transfer a collective check to the party to cover its members' fees. But Attorney Dafna Holtz, an expert on election law, explained that this method might run counter to the Parties Law of 1992, which prohibited paying registration fees on someone else's behalf and even stipulated a punishment of one year in jail for the payer.
In view of this law, the state comptroller was harshly critical of the collective registration at kibbutzim and ordered each member to pay the registration fee himself.
However, Haaretz has learned that this is not being done on at least four kibbutzim, in the north and south of the country.
At Kibbutz Bror Hayil, for instance, which has more than 130 registered Laborites, the payment of NIS 50 per registrant is automatically transferred to the Labor Party and the money is deducted from the kibbutz's levy to the Kibbutz Movement. This is done without the members having signed a document authorizing a transfer in this manner, so the sum was effectively transferred from kibbutz funds.
At other kibbutzim, however, the payments are made directly.
Cabel stated that the proper payment method is a joint check transferred by the kibbutz, with the funds deducted from members' private accounts. "Every kibbutz member pays the money out of his personal account," Cabel said, adding that if any kibbutzim are transferring the money another way, they are acting improperly.
The chairman of Labor's elections committee, Judge Amnon Straschnov, said that no complaint has been received on this matter, but if one is filed, it will receive due consideration.