Ministers reject Netanyahu's claims about their travel
Ministers, who served alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu between 2003-2005, say that his allegations that they also received foreign funding for their travel are patently false; former Interior Minister Avraham Poraz says, 'I never traveled with foreign funding from any group.'
The ministers, who served alongside Netanyahu say that they did not travel with foreign funding and were infuriated by Netanyahu’s defamation of them. Former Minister of Interior Avraham Poraz claimed Netanyahu’s allegations are patently false: “I never traveled with foreign funding from any group. But there was one trip, in which the Anti-Defamation League invited me to the United States. So I informed the Knesset’s Gifts Committee and it approved them to fund my travel. The (ADL) asko offered to fund the travel of my wife, but I did not agree with that. All my other travel was personal and I paid out my pocket. I assume that it is easy for Netanyahu to dump (such charges) on all of us, but they simply are not correct.”
The former Energy Minister Yosef Paritzky also challenged the veracity of Netanyahu’s claims. He said, “Never in my service as government minister did I receive gifts nor did I ever think it acceptable to receive or request them. When I traveled to fundraise for the Hebrew University, I submitted an approval request to the legal advisor of the ministry. If it were approved, I traveled—and if not, I did not travel. My wife joined me for one or two trips with the approval of the legal advisor.”
Former Finance Minister Meir Sheetrit also denied Netanyahu’s claims: “There is no such thing. Never was I asked to fly with the funding of private individuals nor did I ever receive funding from businessmen.” MK Tzipi Livni, who was at the time minister of absorption, said, “What was and was not permitted was clear.”
