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| Proletarian issue 4 (February 2005) |
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| Israeli banks hush up holocaust cash scandal |
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| Zionism has long exploited the jewish holocaust for its own ends. It now transpires that Israel’s banks have been profiting from the accounts of holocaust victims. |
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After years of legal and political wrangling, compensation for jewish survivors of the Nazi holocaust was won from Swiss banks, to the tune of $1.25bn. This cash was paid out as ‘compensation’ for money deposited in numbered accounts by the survivors’ relatives before death and kept by the banks following the war, although since it was paid to large zionist lobby groups, very little of it has actually seen its way to any of the dwindling number of holocaust survivors. (See The Holocaust Industry by Norman Finkelstein)
At the time this settlement was being put together, quiet voices also began to be heard suggesting that Israeli banks may have similarly profited from the holocaust. In response to these questions, an Israeli Parliamentary Committee was set up in February 2000 to investigate the issue. After three years of investigations, a report was compiled by the committee, but this has so far remained unpublished as a result of pressure from the banks to keep it under wraps.
The issue was reported by Aljazeera on 7 December 2004, where it was revealed that Israeli banks were holding thousands of accounts opened prior to WWII by holocaust victims with an estimated worth of around $220m. (‘Israeli banks profit from Holocaust’ by Jonathan Cook, 7 December 2004, Aljazeera.net)
The conduct of the Israeli banks when faced with their crimes has been shameful to say the least. A comparison with the terms of the Swiss settlement reveals the extent of their greed. Aljazeera reported that, where the Swiss paid approximately $400m to cover the cost of investigations into dormant accounts, Israeli banks have agreed to pay only $3m. Where Swiss banks repaid the money adjusted for inflation and with 4 percent interest, Israeli banks are refusing to adjust payments for inflation during the years of WWII and are offering only 2 percent interest. Israeli banks still publicly deny holding any dormant accounts set up by holocaust victims and they have refused to provide the investigating committee with any documentation they consider to be “against the banks’ interests”. (Ibid)
While the whole pressure of the zionist administration, together with that of influential zionist and jewish organisations around the world, was brought to bear against the Swiss banks, the Israeli banks are able to use the same organised zionist lobby to dictate the terms of the investigation and keep the issue out of the public consciousness.
The reason for the Israeli government’s reluctance to expose the scandal is believed to be the fact that the government itself is implicated in the scandal. Jewish organisations, including the World Jewish Restitution Organisation, which campaigned against the European banks but are remaining silent on the question of the crimes of Israeli banks, are understood to be reluctant to see Israel’s international reputation tarnished were the story to be published widely.
An alternate explanation for the discrepancy is offered by Norman Finkelstein, a jewish American historian, who argues that a whole industry has been built in exploitation of the jewish holocaust, which, far from wishing to right historical wrongs and fairly compensate those who have suffered loss as a result of the holocaust, has “effectively turned into a shake-down racket in which more and more countries throughout Europe are being bludgeoned into coughing up compensation”. (Quoted in ‘Is there a Holocaust industry?’ by Andre Vornick, 26 January 2000, BBC News Online)
The truth of the matter is that zionism cares no more for the victims of the holocaust than it does for the innocent Palestinians it daily tramples beneath its boots. Since the creation of the jewish state of Israel, the holocaust has been exploited by the zionists when it suited their aims and ignored when it was inconvenient. In pursuit of a ‘jewish homeland’, the zionists have placed themselves as willing servants of imperialism, acting as policeman for the US in the Middle East. That this morally defunct ideology, wholly dependent on the US for the money and arms necessary to keep it afloat, should find itself exposed in such a way should come as no surprise. |
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