Court Disqualifies Election of JNF World Chair
from The Jerusalem Post:
Effi Stenzler now expected to retain chairmanship until 2014
The Central District Court in Petah Tikva published a ruling on Sunday disqualifying Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Shalom Simhon from the post of chairman of the Jewish National Fund.
Current JNF chairman Effi Stenzler had filed a petition to the court against Simhon’s appointment last year as chairman of JNF in June by the Meretz, Reform and World Labor representatives in the joint Labor/Meretz/Reform faction of the World Zionist Organization, on the grounds that the election had been conducted “undemocratically” and outside of Labor Party auspices.
The petition also named Defense Minister Ehud Barak, former religious affairs minister Shimon Sheetrit and the Artzeinu faction of the WZO.
… In his ruling, Judge Avraham Ya’acov noted that according to the coalition agreement signed by the factions in the WZO, the candidate for JNF chairman must be chosen from the Labor Party in democratic elections.
However, despite this, Simhon and Sheetrit, both former Labor party members and now members of Barak’s Independence Party, and the WZO’s Artzeinu faction had acted contrary to the Labor Party’s interests by appointing Simhon as JNF chairman without an election.