As long as it takes over a year for a permit for a simple change to a building, the use of corrupt ‘facilitators,’ as in the Holyland case, will flourish.
By PEGGY CIDOROlmert in court on day of sentencing, May 13(photo credit: POOL)
Two former mayors (one a former prime minister) and two city council members have been sentenced to jail – that is, at least before their appeals to the Supreme Court, the bottom line of what is considered to be the biggest corruption affair in Israel. In passing sentence, Judge David Rozen used harsh words and created an atmosphere of general cleaning of the Augean stables.However, there is nothing in the sentences or their expected aftermath that can guarantee society that such murky deeds will not continue. In other words, little if anything can assure us that other scandalous affairs are not being perpetrated as we speak.In fact, the primary condition that enabled such situations still exists, and there is no indication that any substantial change is imminent. The Holyland case and many others, smaller but nonetheless on the threshold of breaking the law, are made possible mainly through intermediaries who have become useful as a result of the heavy bureaucracy in this country. In Hebrew slang, they are called macherim (big shots) – people who liaise between residents and the establishment to carry out a project. In most cases, these facilitators are not involved in corruption that involves payment of bribes or the like. But they make a difference.As most of them are former employees of the construction permit department of the municipality, they know how and where to put pressure, how to bypass a few stages and thus shorten the whole procedure of obtaining a permit to change, add or construct from the basis, while residents who do not use their services have to wait years for a simple permit to enclose a balcony.These big shots exist throughout the country. They are not a local invention, so the Jerusalem Municipality doesn’t have a monopoly on the phenomenon. Sometimes they just help to shorten the procedure, but all too often they become the agents of a greedy contractor trying to obtain better conditions for a project. In the case of the Holyland project, the objective was to change its primary function.The first step in the scandal was to deviate from the initial plan and change the project from three hotel towers into an apartment complex. That decision was made without taking into account the impact of this significant change on the life of the neighborhood. More unanticipated housing units meant more children for the neighborhood schools, more traffic, more sewage and so on, and the neighborhood was not prepared to meet those needs.But that was the “easy” part. In the Holyland case, we know now that the project expanded to about 10 times its original size, thanks to a chain of corruptors and corruptees along the way, culminating in the current results. Each of the people involved had something to gain from playing his part until it was too late to stop the monstrosity that is visible from any location in the city.Besides doing something significant to cut down on the red tape, there is an urgent need to minimize – if not put an end to – the use of these big shots. Two major things are required to stop those who initiate the corruption: alert and vigilant local media and an involved society – people who are aware of their rights as residents and refuse to give in to any leniency toward lawbreakers. These two elements are crucial to garnering the basic law and order required to maintain a just and healthy society.There are many residents who would never use one of the facilitators and are prepared to put up with the unbearable whims of the bureaucracy. But there are also quite a few who cannot.To illustrate this point, former deputy mayor Itzhak Pindrus (United Torah Judaism) told this reporter that so long as it takes at least a year to obtain a permit to enclose a balcony, the big shots will flourish. And so will the illegal construction.A municipal spokesperson responded that there is now greater transparency in the municipality. “Since becoming mayor, Nir Barkat has made the committees’ operations (for construction and permits) transparent and the opacity that reigned there for years no longer exists. In addition, the mayor has initiated a course in ethics for the employees,” said the spokesperson.A variation on the theme of this sad story must be devoted to former mayor Uri Lupolianski. Due to his medical condition, his sentence has been suspended until a medical committee decides if he can withstand a jail term. Whatever the decision, one thing must be said.Unlike all those who have been convicted – including former city councilors Eli Simhayof and Avraham Feiner – Lupolianski didn’t put one shekel into his own pocket.The entire NIS 3 million he received from the contractors of the project went directly to his life’s work, the stellar nationwide nonprofit organization Yad Sarah.
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