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Wednesday, January 21, 2004  David
Irving comments: WELL, well, well -- Ha'aretz is
reporting that bank examiners have
discovered that Israel's Bank Leumi is
holding hundreds of dormant accounts of
persons who died during WW2. What's more,
the bank "definitely enjoyed" the use of
the monies for its business activities.
Said the bank's lawyer: "Leumi will not
pay a single agora that does not need to
be paid in the absence of a court verdict
or legislation." What's that smell?
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Leumi
accused of holding on to Holocaust accounts
By Amiram
Barkat BANK Leumi is holding hundreds
of dormant accounts of Holocaust victims, according
to accountant Yehuda Barlev, the external
examiner who has spent two years examining the
bank's records on behalf of a Knesset panel set up
to find and recover such assets. Barlev and other accountants yesterday told the
committee documents show the banks knew how much
money they had that belonged to people killed in
the Holocaust. Documents were also found showing
that banks used some of the money for their
business activities. The panel hired the accountants from five
separate firms in October 2001 to conduct the
searches in five banks -- Leumi, Hapoalim, Mizrahi,
Discount and Mercantile. The committee promised the
banks not to publish the findings before the final
report was finished. But the completed findings the banks got more
than six months ago have not been published because
of their opposition. The banks say the number of accounts discovered
appears to be too many and the committee decided on
an unfair formula to determine the real value of
the funds, which were deposited before the outbreak
of World War II more than 65 years ago. Leumi, the the main opponent to the findings,
claims it doesn't have any accounts of Holocaust
victims. Barlev accused the bank of spreading
"myths" yesterday. He said that despite claims made
by its lawyer, Ram Caspi, the bank has been
foot dragging and creating obstacles for the
accountants. A month ago, he said, the bank cut off
contact with him and has not cooperated since. Yesterday, when he began handing out a fact
sheet to the MKs at the hearing, committee chairman
Colette Avital, MK ( Labor), ordered him to
desist and had the sheets collected. But the data he began to report said that at
least 180 accounts have been identified without
question as belonging to people who died in the
Holocaust, and another 150 that are suspected as
such. He said that after
examining more than two million documents, he
can say that the bank "definitely enjoyed" the
use of the monies for its business activities
and that "to a certain extent," the assets in
the accounts contributed to the bank's
profitability. Avraham Ravitz, MK (United Torah
Judaism), complained that nobody from Leumi was
present to respond, and said he "felt bad that the
bank is in the dock here." He admitted he had "a
small account" at the bank, so should recuse
himself from the session. Avital said the bank was given an opportunity to
attend and had an invitation to speak out at the
committee hearing a month ago. Last night Caspi
said two bank inquiries found not a single account
of any Holocaust victim in the bank's accounts.
Caspi also said that "Leumi will not pay a single
agora that does not need to be paid in the absence
of a court verdict or legislation. The parliamentary inquiry has yet to determine
how the real value of the assets will be
determined. The professional teams are recommending
linking all the funds to their value in 1939, with
an annual four percent interest. The banks are only
ready to consider a link starting in 1948 with a
two percent annual rate. Not only the banks are worried by the work of
the committee. The treasury fears that 60 percent
of the bank accounts are in the hands of the State
Guardian and state treasury. This is because most
of the accounts owned by nationals of either
Germany or the countries it occupied, were
"nationalized" during the war by the British
authorities and ended up in the state's hands when
the British left. There have been reports that whatever the
parliamentary committee rules, it could cost the
state as much as NIS 30-50 billion. And there are
warnings that whatever the committee rules could
turn into a precedent for determining future claims
made by Palestinian refugees in any deal involving
compensation for lost property. 
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