The Haifa District Court today dismissed the appeal by former Bank Hapoalim chairman Dan Dankner and his former wife, Shoshana Dankner, upholding the decision of the Haifa Regional Planning and Building Commission's appeals committee that their house in Atlit was built without a permit, against the law.
In the ruling, Judge Bracha Bar-Ziv criticized the Dankners for appealing the earlier ruling, since they did not possess a building permit for their house, which is built on public land that was never leased to them, but to Israel Salt Industries Ltd., which was owned at the time by the Dankner family and is now owned by Shari Arison through Arison Holdings Ltd. "I agree with the appeals committee, which ruled that the building in its current status significantly deviates from the use for which the site was zoned when the plan was approved, which was intended for possible residences of employees," she wrote.
The land originally had an 80-square meter house, built in the 1960s for Salt Industries employees. In 1991, the company signed over part of the lot over to Dan Dankner and his family. They built a 700-square meter house, and built a swimming pool, tennis court, and winery on the five-dunam (1.25 acre) lot. Shoshana Dankner and her children with Dan now reside in the house.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 17, 2012
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