Even in his wildest dreams, Herzl Gedz, the man responsible for the Northern District in the Ministry of Interior Affairs, probably didn't anticipate the reward that his minister, Meir Sheetrit, had in mind for him.
After having disbanded its previous council, Sheetrit means to appoint Gedz to leader of Migdal, a local council in northern Israel. Gedz would be making NIS 40,000 a month in terms of wage cost and get a contract through to 2013. Ostensibly, the appointment is a routine one, but the facts show serious flaws in timing and background.
Advertisement
In the 1990s, after retiring from the Israeli army with the rank of brigadier general, Gedz joined the Likud party and became very active in the headquarters of the then-party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu. But the Likud lost the election in 1999 and Gedz moved onto the headquarters of Ariel Sharon, who was battling Ehud Olmert for leadership of the party. In 2000, the interior minister of the time, Natan Sharansky, named Gedz head of the Population Registry.
When Sharon won the election in 2001 and became prime minister, Gedz's star rose. But not for long - he was tossed out in 2004 after claims were raised in the Knesset that his policies were independent and biased. Gedz took over as chief of the Northern District, which he ruled with a heavy hand.
Following complaints, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ordered the interior minister at the time, Ophir Pines-Paz, to look into matters. The internal comptroller at the ministry, Bracha Plaut, compiled a report in which she wrote that, in certain cases, Gedz had ignored the law, operated in contradiction to ministry policy, deviated from the confines of his authority and created an atmosphere of terror and fear among his subordinates.
Yet even Plaut's report apparently did not suffice to drive him out. Pines-Paz left the ministry and Gedz remained one of its strongest people, under Roni Bar-On and Olmert, whom he knew well from Likud circles.
However, Gedz's contract ran out in December. Overhearing rumors that it would be extended, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel sued the interior minister - and the state's response was nothing short of astonishing. A review appended to the state's defense, prepared by the deputy attorney general for special tasks, Shai Nitzan, listed the findings regarding Gedz and concluded that there were no grounds for criminal or disciplinary action. However, Nitzan wrote, "there was room to consider" not extending Gedz's contract, on the grounds of unsuitability for the task.
The state's document declares that well before Quality Government motioned the High Court of Justice, Gedz had informed Sheetrit that he felt the job had exhausted itself for him, and he wanted only two months' extension of his contract, so he could complete certain activities already begun. Given his position, the state's position was that Quality Government's lawsuit was pointless. It therefore asked the court to dismiss the case.
Quality Government did withdraw its lawsuit, but the director general of the Interior Ministry, Aryeh Bar, then asked the Civil Service Commission to extend Gedz's contract by a whole year. And Gedz's own response to the High Court has meanwhile arrived, stating that he won't be declaring his retirement.
Sheetrit himself wrote to the High Court, that "In the future," he will consider, "if possible, appointing the respondent to head a 'city council committee'" - an animal that fulfills the functions of mayor and city council (or just of the council), when the incumbent council proves to be hopelessly dysfunctional.
How could such an appointment even be considered after the findings of Plaut, comptroller, and the recommendation of the deputy attorney general? It's a mystery.
Last week we learned that Sheetrit and his director general Aryeh Bar decided to name Gedz to lead the "city council committee" heading Migdal until 2013. That is a plum destined for a favorite of the minister. An Interior Ministry spokeswoman commented that after discussing the matter with all relevant elements, it appears that the final decisions have not yet been made.
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
