Publish the report now

The struggle that has been taking place for more than a year regarding publication of the investigative report on the bank accounts of Holocaust victims in Israel touches a very difficult and sensitive issue in the history of the State of Israel and the Jewish settlement that preceded it. By means of Zionist companies, many thousands of European Jews who wanted to safeguard their money on the eve of World War II purchased real estate, securities, mortgages and other assets here, thereby making an important and insufficiently appreciated contribution toward strengthening the Jewish settlement and the state-to-be.

From the point of view of the young State of Israel, these assets were left without owners after the Holocaust: They weren't recorded separately, no laws for their restoration were legislated, and no real effort was made to locate their legal owners. This led to the emergence of a black market of land traders, and thousands of assets were appropriated or sold to private entities with proper reporting and records. At the same time, the last of the survivors and heirs of the victims ran into an impervious bureaucratic wall when they asked to have their assets returned to them.

The affair came to the fore again only in the 1990s, when Israel demanded justice and compensation from banks in other countries that had plundered victims' assets; and in 2000, a parliamentary committee of inquiry, headed by Colette Avital, was established to locate and restore the assets of Holocaust victims.

Today, about five years after its establishment, the committee has yet to complete its initial task - publishing the review report on the banks. This not only stems from the matter's complexity and the committee's clumsy work, but also from the banks' action - although they promised full cooperation, they changed course when the findings showed that there were no less than 5,000 "dormant" bank accounts into which a total sum of around NIS 1 billion in real terms had been deposited.

The banks argue that at the time, they transfered all the funds to the Mandate and state authorities, as required by the law. At the same time, they are demanding a change in the method used to calculate the real value of the money - which was in practice in other places around the world - and want the committee to use a different method that would reduce the sums by dozens of percent.

Heading the battle is Bank Leumi, which holds, according to the committee's review, the lion's share of the money.

The arguments of the banks' heads and their representatives have been heard in numerous forums. The committee gave the banks' lawyers a public hearing, the Knesset Speaker invited the heads of the banks to a meeting with the members of the committee, and professionals from both sides sifted through all the dormant accounts that were found. Recently, Avital was forced to cede to Leumi's demand for an additional hearing out of concern that the bank would petition the High Court of Justice against the report's publication.

Particularly infuriating is the claim by the heads of the bank that the report's conclusions will be used by the international media as ammunition against Israel. All the parties involved must complete this gloomy chapter quickly and generously, and bring about the restoration of the Holocaust victims' property. This is a complex process strewn with obstacles. Immediate publication of the report is an initial and vital step in it.