"It is the state that has grossly breached an agreement signed in 1960 between the State of Israel and Baron Edmond de Rothschild," claims the management of the Rothschild Caesarea Foundation in response to a report in "Globes" last week. Globes revealed that the Ministry of Finance had recently renewed talks with the Rothschild Caesarea Foundation in an attempt to reach agreement on distribution of about NIS 1 billion that had accumulated in the foundation. In a meeting between Ministry of Finance director general Yael Adorn and Rothschild Caesarea Foundation vice chairman Shlomo Yanai, the possibility arose of dismantling the partnership between the state and the Rothschild family on the basis of which the foundation has operated since it was set up. Yanai also said at the meeting that the foundation would seek legislation that would confirm its tax exemption.
The Rothschild Caesarea Foundation stated yesterday, "In the meeting between the vice chairman of the foundation with the director general of the Ministry of Finance, it was agreed that a working team would be set up to settle the disagreement that stems, as mentioned, from the state's breach of the detailed founding agreement that it signed. In the foundation's founding agreement, it was promised a full exemption from tax, an exemption ratified by the signatures of three ministers of finance. The exemption, which was awarded to the foundation and not to the Rothschild family, was intended to provide the foundation with a source of income to finance its activity and its contributions to the development of higher education in Israel." The foundation says of the founding agreement, "This represented the basis of the endowment of tens of thousands of dunams of land, land fully privately owned by the Rothschild family, without the state investing a cent, apart from foregoing future taxation. The land is Caesarea is private land belonging to the Rothschild family endowed for the benefit of Israel's people. All the profits, in full, are donated to higher education and for the benefit of the community in Israel."
In 2009, the Israel Tax Authority presented the Rothschild Caesarea Foundation with a NIS 145 million demand for tax on the sale of land and on the returns on its financial investments. The foundation said yesterday, "It is the state that has unilaterally breached the agreement by issuing a tax assessment and presenting additional demands after it undertook to regularize the matter in legislation but has failed to do so, so far."
The foundation rejected claims of lack of transparency and failure to release reports, saying, "From the day the foundation was set up, and despite the fact that the foundation is not a government company, it has been the minister of finance who has appointed the state's representatives to the foundation's board of governors, and they are actively involved in running the foundation. The Government Companies Authority appoints directors to the subsidiary companies, and the state's representatives are full partners in allocating the foundation's income."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 9, 2015
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015