Tip of the iceberg

Shlomo Benizri is not the first Knesset member to replace the warm and comforting bench at the parliament by the defendant’s bench at court. However, his sentence places a large and particularly clear warning sign. Israel’s citizens are fed up with the plethora of corruption throughout the establishment, and

Justice Edmund Levy expressed it unequivocally.

We can assume that quite a few people at this time are recalling the words uttered by US Vice President Spiro Agnew in the face of the Nixon affair: The bastards changed the rules and didn’t tell me.

Now, nobody in Israel would be able to claim that they did not know the rules were changed. Such argument could not have been accepted in the past either, yet at this time the message is clear and incisive. However, it must be made clear not only to elected officials expected to maintain their integrity, but mostly to all those around them at their offices or in the corridors of power who seek to secure personal gains via their association with decision-makers.

It appears that almost everyone encounters bureaucratic walls at some point. What angers all of us is the knowledge that some people are worth more: The walls cannot stop them. They always know how to find the right shady dealer or the well-connected lobbyist who can smooth over their problems.

The true malady

This is in fact the true malady around here. Not one minister or another who steals money, which is an annoying phenomenon in and of itself, but rather, the deep corruption, which is defined by criminal law as an act of fraud or breach of trust that hurts the public.

This is the conduct that bothers every citizen, while chipping away at our government systems. The knowledge that state-owned land could never be acquired by us honestly; the realization that failed banks are sold at bargain prices to close associates; the understanding that generous construction permits will never be granted to citizens who are not well-connected; the tax discounts to those who don’t really need them; inflated salaries at public companies, etc.

Under such circumstances, there is no offense that is more significant than breach of trust, and it is indeed unfortunate that it was not upgraded to its rightful status for many years.

Shlomo Benizri and Abraham Hirchson stole, and that’s bad. Yet there are many other lower ranked public officials, at local authorities and government offices, who commit offences that are much more disturbing: They breach the trust granted to them by the public, thereby hurting the public to a much greater extent.

Dr. Haim Misgav is an attorney and criminal law lecturer at the Netanya Academic College