ARIEL SHARON will not face charges in a long-running bribery scandal that threatened to end his political career, Israel’s Attorney-General announced yesterday.
In a controversial decision that contradicted the recommendation of his chief prosecutor, Menachem Mazuz announced that he was closing the “Greek Island Affair”. Mr Sharon denied any wrongdoing.
It centred on claims that a property developer bribed Mr Sharon by paying his unqualified and inexperienced son Gilad £360,000 to act as a consultant on a multimillion-pound casino project on an Aegean island.
Mr Mazuz insisted last night that the Prime Minister was not getting special treatment. “The evidence was weak and did not add up to a solid case,” he said.
He is expected, however, to publish a report critical of the Prime Minister’s conduct.
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Left-wing politicians promised last night to challenge the ruling and Mr Sharon could still face charges in two other corruption investigations.
The scandals have become inextricably linked with Mr Sharon’s plan for “unilateral disengagement” from 21 Gaza and four West Bank settlements. Cynics accuse the Prime Minister of floating the highly popular Gaza plan to make himself unprosecutable.
Buoyed by the widely-leaked decision, Mr Sharon’s Government immediately set about accelerating moves to consolidate Israel’s hold on settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli reports said that Shaul Mofaz, the Defence Minister, instructed administrators to quicken the pace of approvals for building projects in the huge Gush Etzion bloc of settlements south of Jerusalem, with similar plans for Maale Adumim and Ariel further north.
This prompted Palestinian fears that Israel intends to move the 7,500 Gaza settlers to the West Bank, where an estimated 240,000 settlers already live on territory seized by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War.
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Mr Sharon has made no secret of his desire to secure US approval for the de facto annexation of the large West Bank blocs and hailed it as a victory when President Bush referred to them two months ago as “new realities on the ground”.
Shaul Goldstein, a leader of the Gush Etzion settlers, yesterday denied reports that they planned thousands of new houses, claiming that the proposals submitted to Mr Mofaz envisaged “dozens” in the near future and “hundreds” over the next few years.
“We are not making any connection between the (West Bank and Gaza). We oppose any uprooting of Jews from Gaza but anyone who wants to come and live in Gush Etzion is welcome, whether from Tel Aviv, London or Gush Katif (in Gaza),” he said.