The jailing of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s son Omri has further thickened the stench of corruption in Israel, where the public has grown weary of political scandal in the newspaper headlines.
Omri, a former MP, was handed a nine-month sentence over a string of charges linked to his father’s leadership campaign, just a day after another MP, Naomi Blumenthal, was found guilty of paying luxury hotel bills in a bid to secure her candidacy in the last election.
They join a hall of shame from the outgoing Parliament, which the Speaker, Reuven Rivlin, described as ”undoubtedly the most vilified Knesset in the history of the state”, urging the public to vote for ”more decent” members.
Yoel Marcus, a columnist for the liberal Haaretz daily, said it is wrong to consider Israel as a banana republic but acknowledged that the current crop of MPs has undermined public confidence.
”With nine representatives of the people in the outgoing Knesset under police investigation, the smells emanating from the perfumery called the 16th Knesset don’t exactly have their origin in French perfume,” he said.
The charge sheet stretches across party lines and has entangled leaders and humble backbenchers alike.
Ariel Sharon had spent much of his premiership having to deny charges of finance irregularities in connection with his successful 1999 bid to become leader of the right-wing Likud party.
At the beginning of last month, a day before Sharon suffered a massive brain haemorrhage, police said they had gathered evidence during a raid on one of his associate’s houses that they believed would prove his family received a bribe of $3-million.
His arch-rival Benjamin Netanyahu, now leading Likud after Sharon set up the centrist Kadima party, has sought to make much political capital out of Sharon’s travails.
However, he himself was accused of keeping official gifts after losing the premiership in 1999. Police recommended that Netanyahu and his wife be prosecuted, but the attorney general said there was insufficient evidence.
Nor is the centre-left Labour party in much of a position to mock its opponents, having had to cancel a leadership contest last summer when widespread fraud in the membership census was exposed.
Even the secular Shinui party, which came third in the last election after campaigning heavily on an anti-graft ticket, had to sack one of its Cabinet ministers after he was exposed for trying to incriminate a party colleague in the run-up to a leadership election.
Tzruya Medad, an attorney who works for Israel’s Movement for Quality Government, said that the shamelessness of the last Parliament was remarkable.
”It’s true to say that more things are being brought to the notice of the public, but it does not seem so far that it’s making anyone ashamed or afraid of conduct against the law,” she said. ”That’s what makes this Knesset so despised — no one is even ashamed of what they are doing.”
Medad acknowledged, however, that the constant swirl of corruption scandal around the Sharon premiership had done little to dent his high poll ratings.
According to Dan Schueftan, a political analyst based at Israel’s Haifa University, the general public has more important things to worry about when it votes in a general election on March 28.
”It’s a non-issue when Israelis are discussing very, very serious existential issues,” he said. ”They know that if you want someone holier than thou, you get Jimmy Carter.” — Sapa-AFP