Insurers shunning crime-ridden North - Haaretz

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Thu., December 20, 2007 Tevet 11, 5768

Israel Time: 02:12 (EST+7)

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Insurers shunning crime-ridden North

By Eti Aflalo

Tags: Crime, violence, Insurance

After years of insurance companies refusing to insure vehicles in the South due to high crime levels, the firms are refusing to insure businesses in the North as thefts, violent crime and property destruction increase.

The company Hadassim Agricultural Development recently filed a complaint to Yadin Antebi, the Finance Ministry's commissioner of capital markets, insurance and savings. Hadassim said that for the past three months it has suffered violence by criminals who are terrorizing the entire region.

In its complaint, Hadassim details the harassment including a break-in at its site at the Rosh Pina industrial zone, the theft of hydraulic engines, a combine and two trucks, and a hand grenade thrown at its offices.

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Hadassim says the police are helpless in handling such crimes.

Hadassim told Antebi that its operations have been insured for years by Eli Elezra's Hachshara Insurance. Nevertheless, when Hachshara was notified about the combine theft, the insurance firm said it was canceling all its issued policies. Hearing that, Hadassim approached other insurance companies, seeking offers to insure its property and operations, but was refused.

The violence in the North is a widespread phenomenon that also affects farms, contractors, transport companies, restaurants and celebration halls, Hadassim said.

The firm is seeking Antebi's intervention to prevent a sweeping cancellation of its insurance policies.

"It is intolerable that an insurance company can unilaterally withdraw from a contract, while no other entity bound by a contract can do so," Hadassim said.

Alternatively, the company asks that Antebi convince other insurance companies to insure its operations for a reasonable premium, or that an entity such as government insurance arm Inbal insure its activities.

Hadassim says that without Antebi's intervention, and in light of the police's helplessness, it will have to pay protection money or close down.

Hachshara Insurance declined to comment, saying that it normally does not report on its clients' activities in order to maintain confidentiality.

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