Scandals Mount For Israeli Cabinet's Newest Member
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday March 1, 2007
IN HER first week as Israel's new Tourism Minister, the far-right politician Esterina Tartman has announced she wants to strip citizenship from all Arab-Israelis who refuse to swear loyalty to their country as a Jewish state.
In a television interview on Tuesday Ms Tartman said that "any citizen who is not loyal to the idea of a Jewish state, his citizenship should be rescinded". About one-fifth of Israel's 7 million people are Arabs, most of whom claim that instead of being a legally Jewish state, Israel should treat all its citizens equally, regardless of race or religion. Her remarks coincided with a parliamentary ethics committee deciding not to take action against her for recently criticising the appointment of Israel's first Arab Muslim minister as "assimilation" and "a lethal blow to Zionism".Ms Tartman, chairwoman of the ultra-nationalist Russian immigrant party Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home), was promoted on Sunday to the key job of attracting foreign visitors to Israel, but already her appointment has been clouded by scandal. An Israeli TV station used the announcement to recall that Ms Tartman had been awarded more than 2.5 million shekels ($750,000) in state and private compensation for a 1997 traffic accident that she claimed had left her with impaired memory and concentration and unable to work for more than four hours a day. Fourteen months ago she managed to have this award increased on appeal. Ha'aretz followed this up on Tuesday by reporting that despite her disability Ms Tartman had gone on to win a Knesset seat, chair the state audit committee and her own party caucus, set up an employment agency, act as marketing manager for a chemicals company and serve as director and committee member for an insurance agency.Asked about her disability claim while she was standing for the Knesset, Ms Tartman said: "The Knesset is easy work, not continuous, and involves mainly talking."It also emerged this week that she has wrongfully claimed to have a master's degree from the prestigious Hebrew University and a degree from Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv.Yesterday it was reported that Ms Tartman was being investigated by police for boasting false qualifications to fraudulently obtain employment and pay rises.The controversy follows a series of scandals among top politicians.
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald