Israeli lawmakers urge Sharon to resign over funding

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Israeli lawmakers urge Sharon to resign over funding

Israeli lawmaker Ran Cohen, a member of the Parliament State Comptroller's Committee, said Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon must resign over afunding affair.

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Israeli lawmaker Ran Cohen, a member of the Parliament State Comptroller's Committee, said Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon must resign over afunding affair.

Cohen, a MP from the left-wing Meretz party, said Sharon lied when he denied involvement in overseas funding of his 1999 campaignfor the leadership of the Likud.

"It's his duty to step down," Cohen told Israel Army Radio, noting the affair had caused "an absolute rift of trust between thepublic and the government."

"It's unacceptable that all this mud is operating above us, at the head of our government... but the prime minister remains in hisseat," he added.

Israel Television Monday night revealed a tape that indicated Sharon knew the funding affair in his political campaign in 1999, particularly with respect to the money from abroad.

David Spector, who served on the Sharon campaign as a "strategicconsultant," provided the tape.

The tape showed a conversation between Sharon and Spector discussing money transfers from Europe and America, but it also showed a document referred to in the conversation, a list of foreign currency accounts in banks in Israel where donations went.

The prime minister is heard asking Spector for information on the accounts, saying he needed the information by five o'clock thatafternoon.

"Ariel Sharon was involved in everything and delved into the smallest of details," Spector said.

"It's true that Omri (son of Sharon) dealt with some things, butdonations from abroad were done by Ariel Sharon," he added.

Spector said he was speaking up in self-defense. He said he was upset by false charges that he had initiated the investigation intoSharon's finances as an act of revenge after a falling-out between them.

"For the past three years, I have been the subject of slander, persecution, and attempts to frame me by the Sharon family," he added. "If I had wanted revenge, Sharon would not be prime ministertoday."

Likud officials, led by Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi,voiced confidence Tuesday that Spector's charges would not cause serious harm to Sharon's premiership.

The Prime Minister's office refused to comment.

Labor Lawmaker Ophir Pines-Paz has also called for Sharon's immediate resignation, according to a report carried by Tuesday's Jerusalem Post.

Pines-Paz said the tape shows that Sharon is up to his ears in the two affairs. He also warned that if Sharon is not questioned bypolice, it will undermine the rule of law.

Israeli police are investigating two charges of corruption against Sharon.

In the first case, Sharon's two sons, Gilad and Omri, allegedly received a 1.5-million-US dollar loan from a family friend, South African-based businessman Cyril Kern.

The money was used as collateral for a bank loan to repay the millions of shekels in illegal contributions by Annex Research Inc.to Sharon's 1999 primary campaign as Likud chairman.

A second investigation is looking into whether Sharon's son accepted a bribe from Greek businessman David Appel, a charge knownas the Greek Island Affair.

Police suspected that Appel wanted to garner the help of Ariel Sharon, then foreign minister, for a huge building project in Greece.

Appel hired Gilad Sharon, then 30, as a consultant and agreed topay him 20,000 dollars a week plus a bonus of 1.5 million dollars if the project was implemented.

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