Israel forgives West Bank and Golan settlements $132.3 million debt

 

 

 

 

Israel forgives settlements for huge debt

A senior official in the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division says that up to 90 percent of loans have been forgiven.

HAARETZ.COM

The World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division has forgiven about half a billion shekels ($132.3 million) of debt owed by settlements in the West Bank and the Golan Heights over the past four years.
The debt resulted from long-term loans given by the Settlement Division to settlements in the Golan Heights West Bank and Gaza, primarily in the 1970s and 1980s. The Gaza debts were wiped out by cabinet decision in 2010.
The loans were given to both individual settlers and settlement associations for construction and farming.
In the government’s annual fiscal report, released Thursday, the Finance Ministry noted that “collection over the years of loans given through the Settlement Division is negligible or non-existent.” It was also noted that “conditions have not yet been determined for the repayment” of loans for construction.
In light of the division’s mismanagement and failure to keep accurate books,it was decided in May 2011, together with the Finance Ministry, to launch a debt repayment campaign for loans given up to the end of 2003. Beginning in May 2011, borrowers could apply to a joint committee of the government’s accountant general and the division for their loan to be expunged.
In 2010, before the loan relief policy was instituted, the debt was 588 million shekels. By 2011, that figure had declined to 320 million shekels. In 2012, it was 275 million shekels, and in 2013, it was 120 million shekels. Yesterday’s fiscal report put the debt at only 35 million shekels.
The report notes that efforts have been made in recent years to “implement a general mapping of the debts in the Settlement Division and that “the Settlement Division is working together with the accountant general to implement extensive arrangements for these debts.”
Only the remaining debt is noted in the report; not the amount that has been forgiven. Part of the reduction is due to sums that have been partially paid back.
Haaretz applied to the Finance Ministry in January this year for information about the rate of financial haircuts and the circumstances in which the loans were incurred. The application, under the Freedom of Information Law, was turned down on the basis that it should have been made to the Settlement Division. However, the Settlement Division is not subject to the Freedom of Information Law. Haaretz then asked the district court to intervene; a hearing is scheduled for September.
However, from conversations with individuals in the settlements and the Settlement Division, it emerges that the haircut rate is high. A senior official in the Settlement Division told Haaretz that the haircut was 90 to 95 percent of the amount of the loan.