Group demands review of ILA's exception for lessee

The Association for Distributive Justice called on Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias to reexamine a decision by the Israel Lands Administration to let the company Yachin Hakal extend its leases on thousands of dunams of land for another 49 years.

Last month TheMarker published the minutes of the 2005 meeting during which the ILA, then headed by Ehud Olmert, approved the extension. According to the minutes, Olmert steamrolled all opposition to the plan, which appeared to violate government regulations stating that a party that has leased state land must cede control before that land is rezoned for construction.

Yachin Hakal was purchased in 1992 by now-deceased Portuguese businessman Sami Shamoon, who claimed that before he bought the company, Ariel Sharon had promised him that the leases would be extended.

The ILA approval apparently brought the company millions of shekels in profits.

Referring to the various decisions made in Yachin Hakal's favor over the past few decades, the association said: "These are beneficent and unreasonable decisions, and constitute an expensive, billion-shekel gift to Yachin Hakal at the expense of the public purse."