Maof

By Mr. Aviad Vissoli, Chairman of Haifa and the North Association for the Land of Israel

I am lodging a complaint againist Mr. Amram Mizna, head of Haifa Municipality (hereinafter referred to as “suspect Mizna"), Mr. Danny Noyman, director of Haifa Fund (henceforth “suspect Noyman") and Mr. Israel Ben Shalom (henceforth "suspect Ben Shalom") in which they are accused of: appropriating by fraud under aggravating circumstances (paragraph 415 of the law of punishments – 5 years), keeping a false record in corporation papers (paragraph 423 of the law of punishments – 5 years), deception and oath-breaking (paragraph 284 of the law of punishments – 3 years), deception and oath-breaking in a corporation (paragraph 425 of the law of punishments – 3 years) basing on the following facts:

In August of 2002, suspect Mizna sent letters to thousands of employers and citizens of Haifa in which he was suggesting to buy tickets for a concert of Rita and Rami Klaynshtein scheduled for October 24th, 2002, at the Congress Hall in Haifa. It was supposed to be the second gala-evening of Kesem Fund (lit. “Magic Fund”). Kesem Fund was described in the letter as a fund which was supporting poor families and children and had founded a “house of aid” for this purpose.

In the letter employers are asked for assistance. I quote: "We ask you to support us by donations, patronage, publicity in a certain brochure which will appear especially for the evening, or by buying tickets for you, members of your family and your workers (recognized by tax board). For details please contact the director of the fund, Sara Gur, or the deputy head of municipality, Israel Ben Shalom in his office at the municipality building.”

I bought two tickets for the concert, having paid for them by a cheque of 300 shequels payable to Kesem Fund and sent it along with a note, in which I had made clear that the cheque was for the concert tickets. However, the receipt I received was from Haifa Fund, so the money had been put on the bank account of this fund. Haifa Fund sent me a donation receipt which could’ve been substracted from the income-tax, although this money had been paid for the tickets.

During a phone talk which I, under a fictitious name, had with Kesem Fund secretary, she admitted that all the money which comes for Kesem Fund, is being put on Haifa Fund bank account, and that “Kesem Fund” is no more than its second and forged name. The conversation was recorded on the enclosed tape. It appeared that the municipality had paid the singers the full price of their concert, while other expenses such as the hall price were, probably, covered by the municipality, too. Therefore, without any right or allowance, suspect Mizna transferred the money which arrived in Haifa municipality, to the Haifa Fund account.

Furthermore, I learned from a reliable source which preferred to stay anonymous, that dentists of “Bney Zion” hospital had been requested to give treatment to some Ethyopian families for a donation of $50,000 made by Myra Krafft from Boston. After some time the dentists were ordered to stop the treatment immidiately, owing to the fact that the donation had been taken by Danny Noyman, main director of Haifa Fund, for the needs of his fund, and therefore this money would not be paid for the Ethyopians’ treatment. So their treatment was stopped. It appears that suspects Mizna and Noyman did not hesitate to take money which was assigned to poor children, old and sick people, and use it for themselves, thus cheating the donors as well as the poor.

It turns out that Kesem Fund is a complete fiction. It turns out that all the money which has been collected for it and meant to be donations for the poor, has been put on the bank account of Haifa Fund, which uses it as its directors please. Haifa Fund is an association, the chairman of which is suspect Mizna, and the main director – suspect Noyman, and they do whatever they like with the money arriving there. Due to the fact that Haifa citizens know Haifa Fund as “Mizna’s little money-box” and are not interested to give money for it, suspect Mizna has called it “Kesem Fund”, while all the money goes straight to Haifa Fund.

Moreover, the letter which was sent by suspect Mizna, had been typed on the postal paper of the municipality head. The money for copying (thousands of copies), stamps and envelopes was paid by the municipality, although those were the expenses of a private corporation with suspect Mizna as a chief and suspect Noyman as a manager, a corporation which has nothing to do with the municipality, is not bound to it and the law of public money cannot be related to its financial expenses. What is more, it seems that the municipality covered also the other expenses of the evening, while the profit from it went totally into Haifa Fund and the singers’ pockets, instead of being donated to the poor. Suspect Mizna uses Haifa Fund to play himself up and to increase his chances of becoming the leader of his party.

Suspect Ben Shalom is an office worker in the municipality, who during his working time and on account of the municipality collects contributions for Haifa Fund, which is a private corporation of suspect Mizna. It has to be mentioned that suspects Noyman and Ben Shalom are suspected also in relation to another case with which the police is dealing now: Noyman is being interrogated as a suspect in helping Mizna receiving illegal donations, while Ben Shalom is being questioned about his participation in Mizna's pre-election campaign for the post of Avoda party leader, being at the same time a paid office worker of the municipality.

From all of the above may be drawn the following conclusion: suspects Mizna, Noyman and Ben Shalom use the hard economic situation in the country, as well as the poor families’ desparate need of assistance, as a trick for collecting money in and outside the country for Haifa Fund, doing it under the name of "Kesem Fund" – a pure invention, a fictitious fund which has never been registered anywhere. Moreover, suspects Mizna and Noyman use money of the government and municipality workers for collecting donations to that fund, the financial affairs of which are not controlled in any way by the government.

Signed: Aviad Vissoli,
Chairman of Haifa and the North Association for the Land of Israel
Phone: 04-8112099, fax: 04-8243490, cellular: 053-751799
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Relief Fund for the Terror Victims in Haifa

Due to initiative of the “Boston Jewish Federation” and society “Haifa – Boston” a special relief fund for the terror victims in Haifa has been founded, according to the statement of the “Boston Jewish Federation” representative in Israel Yosi Glozman. The donations of the total sum of about 100 thousands dollars will be transferred to the funds “Kesem” and “Haifa”. The money will be distributed between the families of the victims according to the municipal Social Security Council principles. The Haifa’s mayor Amram Mizna who had been taking part in establishing of relations between Haifa and Boston expressed his thanks to the members of the Jewish community of Boston.
Boston Jewish Federation during twelve years fulfilled tens projects in the area of education, social security, new immigrants absorption, economical growth in Haifa, while the overall donation sums run up to million dollars per year. This activity allows to the society “Haifa – Boston” to establish groups of volunteers for the educational work in the field of the Jewish self-consciousness.

Russian versia

Hebrew versia - original