Sapir Defends ‘special Projects Fund’ from Opposition Attack

Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir vigorously and vociferously defended his “Special Projects Fund” from attack by opposition Knesset factions today. There was not the slightest stain on the Fund’s record, Sapir asserted nothing at all to be ashamed of. The accusations against it, he said, were the product of a few sick minds.

Sapir’s special projects fund was attacked by Uri Avneri who demanded that a special government commission should be appointed to investigate it. But his Knesset motion to this effect was defeated by a vote of 33-17. The coalition and religious parties rallied around Sapir. The left and right-wing opposition groups combined to muster the 17 votes.

A public debate on the fund has been proceeding for some time. Sapir has had to defend his activities before the Knesset Finance Committee which, after hearing detailed reports from the Minister himself and his senior fund-raiser, Knesset member Aviad Yaffe, endorsed the fund’s activities by a majority. The Cabinet, two weeks ago, also issued a statement expressing satisfaction and admiration at the Fund’s successes.

Sapir declared last week that in two years the fund has raised $280 million from foreign and local donors for educational health and welfare projects in Israel. The contributions were solicited over and above the donors’ regular United Jewish Appeal or United Israel Appeal contributions. Sapir stressed. He also reported fully on the fund at close intervals to the State Controller and to the Knesset Finance Committee.

SOLICITING METHODS EXPLAINED

Criticism in the press and elsewhere had been levelled particularly at Sapir’s soliciting from local entrepreneurs. It was said that there was an ethical flaw in having the same man soliciting donations and allocating loans and grants to the same donor manufacturer. Sapir stressed that only 10 percent of the fund’s revenues were solicited locally and that even many of the so-called local donors in fact had their businesses outside Israel.

In the Knesset today, Sapir recalled that a majority of the Finance Committee, including some Gahal members, had been satisfied that all was above reproach. He repeated that all projects were proposed by relevant government ministries to potential donors. It was not as though he. Sapir, set priorities, he said. The funds themselves were channeled through the Jewish Agency whose internal comptroller supervised the transactions.

Avneri, charging that the fund was “Israel’s Watergate,” demanded a commission to investigate if pressures were exerted on donors and whether donors received benefits in return for gifts, and whether any of the money was passed to political parties. He charged that Gahal was in league with Sapir. This prompted Gahal leader Menachem Beigin to reply that a man like Avneri, who had “ruined a generation of Israeli youth with his magazine (Haolam Hazeh) for filthy lucre,” has no right to preach to anyone.

Gahal’s Haim Corfu suggested Avneri’s motion be moved to committee, but this too was voted down. Corfu said his party was not satisfied with the detailed reporting of the fund to the Knesset Finance Committee. Shmuel Tamir, of the Free Center faction, abstained but accused Sapir of diverting some of the funds to the Labor Party. He held up a copy of a receipt for IL 100,000 dated 1969 from “Autocars,” a local car manufacturer to an undefined “education fund.” This, he said, proved that not all the money was for bona fide worthy causes. Sapir shouted at him: “You are the greatest slanderer in the country.”