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Last update - 11:19 12/11/2008 Large bloc, big disgrace By Haaretz Editorial Tags:   The State of Israel and other public bodies are suspected of destroying documents relating to the ownership of lands belonging to people who perished in the Holocaust, as well as of transferring hundreds of dunams of those lands to others. The suspicions emerge from a report to the Company for the Restitution of Holocaust Victims Assets (as reported by Tomer Zarchin in Haaretz on November 9). The report, which was compiled at the behest of the company by Dr. Nissan Sharifi, an expert in property law, and members of his team, claims that "these institutions acted as stealthy thieves, as marketplace hagglers, and ... not as public institutions are expected to act." According to the suspicions raised in the report, dozens of real estate assets in the Sharon area belong to people who perished in the Holocaust, but state institutions nationalized the lands and destroyed the ownership titles. The company also suspects that lands in north Tel Aviv, in the area known as "the large bloc," were purchased by Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust and whose identities, as well as the identities of their heirs, are not known. The company turned to the administrators of the large bloc and to the Custodian General in the Justice Ministry, demanding a list of the owners of the lands, but to date it has not received a reply. Advertisement The affairs described in the report give rise to suspicions of criminal acts, and cast a heavy moral shadow on the activities of many people who were involved in the matter. Knesset Member Colette Avital (Labor), who headed the parliamentary committee of inquiry on restitution of assets of Holocaust victims in Israel, also stated that there were suspicions of "underhanded business" with regard to the property of those who had perished, even if it was not possible to prove this at the level required for criminal indictment. The Company for the Restitution of Holocaust Victims Assets is currently carrying out widespread searches throughout the country, which appear yet to have reached a stage of realization. The company plans to appeal to a special committee, headed by the former deputy president of the Tel Aviv District Court, Yehoshua Gross, which is authorized to demand of every party that it turn over information relating to property that may have belonged to people who perished in the Holocaust. It is to be hoped that all concerned will cooperate with this committee. What is required now of the institutions is to act willingly in order to make amends for the moral wrongdoing toward those Holocaust victims and their heirs. What is imperative is that there must be free access to all the archives and all the relevant documents in the lands registration bureau, without attempts to conceal information, as there appear to be now. Together with a change in attitude on the part of the public authorities, the company seeking the assets is required to act more vigorously to find and return them to their owners and their heirs, to the extent that that is possible. The process of transferring the assets from the Jewish National Fund to the company is in its initial stages, and it is advisable that it continues tirelessly. Its attitude toward Holocaust victims is a test of the State of Israel as a country that respects its past, which is part of the foundation for its existence, and as one that is obliged to hold in high regard the civil rights that were denied to its own citizens. The Commission of Inquiry into Assistance to Holocaust Survivors, headed by the retired Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner, wrote in its report of June last year that "the state, by means of the various governments that were in power, has especially discriminated against those among the survivors who did not have good luck and who remained behind." The state has the moral obligation to show that this is no longer the case. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Enough is enough Livni says time will come when Israel tells Gaza militants: Enough! Oxbridge anti-Semitism Report: Oxford students face anti-Semitism charges over 'pretty Jewish girls' party.   1.   First things first, if ever 15:41  |  D. Facto 12/11/08   2.   Alleged possible illegal land deals with covering up 18:30  |  H.H.M. 12/11/08

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