When Gershon Mesika introduced his resignation as chairman of the Samaria Regional Council after turning into a state’s witness in a high-profile corruption probe in May 2015, he assured residents of the realm, in the northern West Bank, that he was not achieved but.
“I will not stop to make every effort to develop and build Samaria. This has been my sole goal in the past, the present and it will be in the future,” he mentioned.
Three years have handed and Mesika is now making good on that pledge, formally declaring his candidacy in the October municipal elections, when the 65-year-old hopes to be re-elected to the identical post from which he was ousted over his position in the so-called Yisrael Beytenu corruption scandal.
Speaking to Famzn News on Monday, Mesika referred to his involvement in the probe as a mere “mishap.”
The former Samaria chairman firstly identified that the prosecution had acknowledged in its state’s witness settlement that he had acted for the sake of the regional council and never out of his personal self-interest.
The method Mesika explains it, he agreed to give NIS 1 million ($276,185) to then-deputy minister and Yisrael Beytenu secretary-general Faina Kirshenbaum in trade for the funneling of her faction’s coalition funds to erase the NIS three.5 million ($966,646) in debt owed by the Samaria Development Company, a subsidiary group of the municipality.
Samaria Regional Council chairman Gershon Mesika attends an Internal Affairs and Environment committee assembly in the Knesset on December 30, 2013. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
In December 2014, police briefly arrested Mesika on suspicion of theft by a public official, fraud, and falsifying paperwork.
Five months later, he signed an settlement to flip state’s witness in order to keep away from fees.
Mesika went on to give police details about funds that have been transferred to senior officers, amongst them Kirshenbaum, who stepped down as deputy inside minister earlier that 12 months after information of the investigation broke.
Police mentioned on the time that a year-long covert investigation revealed a labyrinthine system in which politicians funneled public funds and favors to native our bodies and different teams, in addition to their members, in trade for kickbacks.
The investigation focused a variety of high-level officers in the Yisrael Beytenu party simply months earlier than the March 2015 basic election, and party leader Avigdor Liberman accused police of an ongoing witch hunt towards him.
Yisrael Beytenu Avigdor Liberman (left) holds a press convention with Faina Kirshenbaum, July 20, 2011. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
In varied interviews Mesika has given since signing the settlement with the State Prosecutor’s Office, he has asserted that he acted “as any council chairman would have, does and will not stop to act.”
He acknowledged that he ought to have been extra cautious in making certain that the cash he gave was not pocketed by personal people linked to Yisrael Beytenu, however also stated that he was most involved with stopping the dismissal of some 150 municipal workers who would have been laid off had the debt not been coated.
“There was a mishap. I took responsibility, resigned and went home for three years,” Mesika summarized. “Now, I’m ready to return and continue the great work I was doing — more work than any council chairman has been able to accomplish.”
Who decides who's match?
When phrase bought out final month of Mesika’s curiosity in returning to his outdated post in the Samaria Regional Council, State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan was fast to lambaste the transfer publicly.
“We have recently been informed of a person who headed a regional council, who admitted to giving bribes, resigned, and now, very soon, will announce that he intends to run again for the chairmanship of the council he headed,” Nitzan mentioned throughout his deal with on the Israel Bar Association’s annual convention.
“I’ll remind you that a state’s witness is a criminal for whom the prosecution has found that there is significant public interest to show (him or her) leniency in order to prosecute other more significant criminals — but (this person) is still a criminal,” Nitzan said, clearly referring to Mesika.
Attorney General Avichai aendelblit (L) and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan attend a Justice Ministry convention in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2016. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit went a step additional, sending a private letter to the ousted Samaria chairman final month telling him that “it would certainly be inappropriate for you to take on the position that you filled out when you committed these serious crimes, for which you did not stand trial just because you signed an agreement with the state.”
Mesika slammed the “absurdity” of Mandelblit’s feedback.
“The attorney general is supposed to say what is forbidden and what is permitted. Whether or not it is appropriate for me to take on the position is for the public to decide.”
The 65-year-old careworn that the state’s witness settlement that he signed didn't embrace a clause banning him from working for the place at a later date.
Running towards his protégé
While the Thursday announcement has spiked pleasure amongst a group of his supporters, who've been hanging “Run, Gershon, Run” indicators in settlements all through the northern West Bank over the previous month, Mesika faces appreciable competitors from none apart from his protégé Yossi Dagan.
Mesika appointed Dagan as his deputy after successful his second time period as council chairman in 2012. The 36-year-old resident of Shavei Shomron headed the municipality’s extremely touted advocacy initiative, “Samaria, nice to meet you,” which seeks to deliver leaders from Israel and across the globe to the Jewish communities of the northern West Bank in order to study the settler narrative firsthand.
Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan speaks throughout a protest towards the deliberate eviction of the outpost of Amona, in entrance of the Knesset on January 30, 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
The pupil went on to substitute the trainer when Mesika resigned in 2015, and though each chairmen have loved important assist from settlers throughout the regional council, their types of management differ significantly.
While each are seen as having bigger than life personalities, Dagan is the extra fiery of the 2, and he has used his media savvy and political clout in the Likud party to launch a number of aggressive campaigns towards Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which have earned him nationwide headlines.
In an obvious recognition of the formidable opponent he's dealing with, Mesika used the announcement of his candidacy to take a shot at his former quantity two.
“My deputy, Yossi Dagan, was aware of all the (Yisrael Beytenu) proceedings, of course, but I chose to take personal responsibility and time out from running the council,” Mesika wrote.
However, the jab appeared to have boomeranged as Samaria chief rabbi and Mesika confidant Elyakim Levanon launched a assertion of his personal on Saturday night, rejected the feedback as false.
Levanon attested to having been by Mesika’s facet all through the investigation throughout which “Yossi Dagan’s name never came up, even once.”
“I call upon all those participating in the election campaign to be truthful, and not disseminate information that has no basis,” he concluded.
“I know Yossi better than Yossi knows Yossi,” his predecessor claimed
For his half, Mesika stood by his feedback relating to Dagan’s information of his dealings with Faina Kirshenbaum.
“I’m prepared to take a lie detector test or even be sued,” he claimed, including that Levanon was being pressured to contain himself in issues which can be past his scope.
Mesika claimed that since expressing his curiosity in working, he has been the goal of a collection of non-public assaults claiming he's unfit to lead the regional council.
Samaria Regional Council chairman Gershon Mesika (L) offers a tour of the northern West Bank together with his deputy Yossi Dagan (proper) to Transportation Minister Israel Katz in 2012. (Samaria Regional Council)
Asked if he thought Dagan was behind the marketing campaign of “threats, demagoguery and disinformation,” Mesika refused to dismiss the chance, saying that “everybody knows which way the wind is blowing.”
“I know Yossi better than Yossi knows Yossi,” he additionally mentioned, leaving little doubt as to whether or not he thought Dagan was liable for the efforts to undermine him.
Placing residents in an awkward place
With each leaders closely praised for his or her contributions to the event of settlements in the northern West Bank throughout their respective phrases in workplace (Mesika in 2007-2015 and Dagan from 2015 to the current), Mesika should clarify what he plans on bringing to the desk to warrant one other likelihood on the municipality’s prime post.
While he touted his accomplishment in increasing the regional council’s status throughout his helm, he largely kept away from declaring something he noticed as a downside in Dagan’s tenure.
However, requested whether or not he would work with the Yesha settlement umbrella council — one thing that Dagan has largely averted doing since taking workplace — Mesika assured that was his plan.
“The Yesha Council belongs to all of us and we have to work together. There can be no soloists,” he mentioned.
In a remaining dig at his successor, Mesika mentioned he deliberate on bringing back the “momentum” in constructing and creating the municipality that he claimed had stalled since his resignation.
“We must return to actions and development, and less headlines and media spotlight.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (r) with settler leader Yossi Dagan at occasion commemorating 50 years of settlement in the West Bank, August 28, 2017. (Jacob Magid/Famzn News)
Dagan largely declined a request for touch upon this report, referring Famzn News’s to Levanon’s assertion dismissing Mesika’s claims and calling on his predecessor to chorus from disinformation campaigns.
For many Samaria residents who've appreciated each Dagan and Mesika, the latter’s candidacy announcement gives an uncomfortable problem.
“By the two of them competing — Yossi and Gershon, who are from the same team — they are putting a lot of people, like myself, in a very awkward situation because we have great respect and friendship toward both of them and we’re being forced to choose,” mentioned David Ha’ivri, who has served as an adviser to each chairmen.
Ha’ivri defined that regardless of Mesika’s connection in the Yisrael Beytenu scandal, the neighborhood of Israelis in the northern West Bank doesn't consider him as corrupt and understands that he was performing in their profit.
“However, there is a feeling that he did his service, and it is time to move on.”
“There is deep appreciation for Gershon, and the public is not angry with him that he got caught up in the scandal. They don’t view him as corrupt; however, there is a feeling that he did his service and it is time to move on,” he concluded.