Israel seeking tax cheats named in Panama Papers
Israel’s tax authority will investigate the Israeli companies and individuals that were identified as having offshore accounts in a dump of leaked documents known as the Panama Papers.
Some 600 Israeli companies and 850 Israeli shareholders are listed in the Panama Papers as having offshore accounts. Among the companies are Bank Leumi and Bank Hapoalim.
The tax authority said it will look into whether the ownership of the companies and the assets held abroad were reported to the agency and if the appropriate taxes were paid. Its director, Moshe Asher, told the daily newspaper Israel Hayom that some of the names on the accounts have not reported overseas assets. It is legal to use offshore accounts.
The 11.5 million documents were published April 3 following a yearlong investigation of their contents led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
The leaked data, which go back as far as 1975, came from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which is known for creating shell companies that often conceal the ownership of assets in the accounts. — jta
Hamas says it has 2 Israeli captives, remains of 2 more
Hamas said for the first time that it is holding two Israeli men and the remains of two Israeli soldiers.
The Islamist group’s military wing released a televised statement on April 1 through official Hamas media, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The statement said the group is demanding Israeli concessions in exchange for information about the condition of the “four prisoners of war.”
The two Israelis who are believed to be alive — an Ethiopian Jew and a Bedouin Israeli Arab, both said to be mentally ill — have been missing since separately crossing the border into the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which governs Gaza, had not previously acknowledged having any information about the men’s whereabouts.
Avraham Mengistu, the Ethiopian Jew, was 29 and suffering from severe depression when he illegally wandered across the border in 2014. His family recently traveled to Geneva to appeal for international help in bringing him home.
The Bedouin, who is from the Negev, has not been publicly identified. He is said to have psychological issues and a history of entering Jordan, Egypt and Gaza.
The two dead Israelis whose remains are in Gaza are Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul, both killed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. — jta
Soldier videotaped in killing awaits trial out of prison
The Israeli soldier caught on video shooting a supine Palestinian terrorist in the head will remain confined to base without his weapon, an IDF court of appeals ruled on April 5, and not returned to military prison, as demanded by the prosecution.
The still-unnamed soldier is facing charges of manslaughter for a March 24 incident in the West Bank city of Hebron, where he shot and killed a wounded Palestinian terrorist who had taken part in the stabbing of another Israeli soldier.
His original murder charge was downgraded to manslaughter on March 31 by decision of a military tribunal.
The soldier reportedly told the appeals court on April 5 that he could have been dead rather than in court if the attacker had been wired with explosives.
“My hands were full of my comrade’s blood. I was enraged. In a split second I decided to shoot,” he reportedly told investigators during the hearing. “If there was an explosives belt, I would be in the cemetery and not in court. You investigators at the investigative division are sitting in an office and not in the field where you can be shot at.”
Knesset members from the Arab Joint List MKs condemned the downgrading of charges against the soldier, saying the decision “proves once again that such incidents must be investigated by an international war crimes tribunal.”
“The suspicion is still murder, there is enough evidence for an indictment,” the prosecutor declared, noting that the soldier shot the Palestinian stabber in the head though he was down on the ground and no longer a threat.
The soldier’s arrest set off a national debate in Israel. On March 24, the day of the incident, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the soldier’s conduct “does not represent the values of the IDF.”
The soldier’s parents and politicians to Netanyahu’s right, including Education Minister Naftali Bennett, defended the soldier and criticized Netanyahu for insufficiently defending Israel’s troops during a wave of terror attacks. — jta
Speaker Ryan meets Netanyahu in Jerusalem
House Speaker Paul Ryan led a bipartisan delegation of U.S. congressmen who met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
“The delegation expressed strong support for Israel,” said a short statement issued April 4 by the prime minister’s Office after the meeting.
Israel is the first foreign country that Ryan, R-Wis., has visited since becoming speaker of the House of Representatives in October.
The delegation arrived in Israel on April 4 and was scheduled to meet with senior Israeli government officials “to discuss the important relationship between our two countries as well as security issues affecting the region and the world,” according to a statement from Ryan’s office.
On April 4, Ryan met at the Knesset with his counterpart, Yuli Edelstein, where he reaffirmed U.S. support for Israel and said Congress would hit back against any boycott efforts. He also called for Israel and the United States to renew the 10-year bilateral security agreement.
The delegation led by Ryan includes chairs of two House committees: Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, House Armed Services, and Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. — jta
Bethlehem marathon protests Israeli restrictions
More than 4,000 people participated in a Bethlehem marathon on April 1 designed to highlight travel restrictions imposed on Palestinians by Israel.
“Restriction on movement is one of the major challenges for the Palestinian people living under occupation. Palestinians cannot move freely on roads, or from one city to another,” the marathon’s organizers from the Right to Movement group wrote on their website.
Because the Palestinian Authority does not control a contiguous 26.2 miles — the distance of an Olympic marathon — in the Bethlehem district, the run looped around a seven-mile stretch.
Nearly 4,400 runners took part in this year’s marathon — up from 3,100 last year — with a record 46 percent of them women.
The Palestinian Authority, which helped organizers facilitate conditions for the race, asked Israel to allow 102 runners from Gaza to attend, but they were not allowed into the West Bank, the report said. — jta
To punish Hamas, Israel stops Gaza cement imports
Israel has temporarily barred cement and other construction materials from entering the Gaza Strip after finding that Hamas was diverting some of the materials for its own use.
The Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, said the cement restriction went into effect on April 3, the Times of Israel reported.
According to an announcement on the Israeli coordinator’s Arabic language Facebook page, the deputy director of Hamas’ Economic Ministry has confiscated an undisclosed amount of cement that had been earmarked for rebuilding private sector infrastructure damaged in the 2014 war with Israel.
Reconstruction agreements between Israel and the Palestinians prohibit Hamas, which governs Gaza, from accessing any imported construction materials. This is because of Israeli concerns that Hamas will use the materials to rebuild its network of tunnels designed to attack Israel and kidnap Israeli soldiers.
Hamas has acknowledged rebuilding the tunnels. — jta
Israeli, Palestinian meat smuggling ring busted
Nine people, Israelis and Palestinians, have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling unsafe meat into Israel from the Palestinian territories and selling it, with forged kashrut certifications, to Israeli restaurants.
The April 4 arrests followed an investigation by the Israel Police and three Israeli ministries: agriculture, finance and health, Ynet reported. Additional arrests are expected.
Officials confiscated 30 tons of meat, thousands of dollars in cash and vehicles with secret compartments in a scheme in which Palestinian and Israeli smugglers cooperated.
According to Ynet, the meat originated in South America and was sent through the port of Haifa to a Palestinian importer, ostensibly for use in areas of the West Bank governed by the Palestinian Authority. Instead, the meat was stored in a Palestinian town northeast of Jerusalem and smuggled back into Israel under conditions that violated health regulations.
After the meat was repackaged with fake kosher certifications, as well as fraudulent expiration dates and veterinary permits, it was distributed to “leading and renowned restaurants” and stores, according to Ynet. — jta
Olmert’s son’s media firm raises $15 million
Playbuzz, a media company co-founded by the son of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has raised $15 million in funding, most of it from billionaire Israeli-American mogul Haim Saban and the Walt Disney Co.
The company, which provides a platform for media companies to create quizzes and other interactive features, said in a news release that the new investment will go toward expanding its sponsored-content business.
The largest chunk of the new funding for the firm led by Shaul Olmert comes from Saban Ventures, an affiliate of the Saban Capital Group. Saban, whose corporate website describes him as a “worldwide pioneer and leader in the entertainment industry,” was born in Egypt, immigrated to Israel as a child and has lived in Los Angeles since 1983.
According to Reuters, thousands of publishers, including Time, HBO and USA Today, use Playbuzz. (JTA has used it, too.) The company has 100 employees, 60 of them in Israel.
Co-founded in 2012 by Olmert and Tom Pachys, Playbuzz has offices in New York; Tel Aviv; London; Nashville, Tennessee; and Hamburg, Germany. — jta