(Hai Pa) - The Kishon River Authority filed a financial claim against Bezan (the oil refineries) for a total of approximately NIS 4.5 million, claiming that the company does not transfer its share of the Kishon River Authority's budget.
The Kishon River Authority informed Hai Pa News Corporation:
"The refusal of the Bezan Group to pay its share of the Kishon River Authority's budget substantially harms the activity of the Authority for the Rehabilitation and Development of the River for the Public Welfare."
The Kishon River Authority filed this week (Sunday, 22/12/24) a claim for approximately NIS 4.5 million against the Bezan group in Haifa for failure to transfer payment of an annual quota, which it is supposed to transfer to the authority according to the law.
In the statement of claim, filed by the law firm Nishitz, Brands, Amir & Co. through the lawyers Bila Kahane Levinzon and Roi Rotenbach, it is claimed that starting in 2020 the Bezan Group will regularly refrain from paying its share of the Authority's budget, and this without any change in the conduct of the companies in relation to to the river and their polluting activity in its vicinity. It should be noted that starting with the establishment of the authority it was determined and approved by the minister For the protection of the environment, that the funding sources of the river authority's budget will be through annual membership fees that will be imposed on the members of the authority and through the imposition of quotas on the members and those qualified to be members of the authority.
CEO of the Kishon River Authority, Sharon Nissim:
The Bezan group piles up difficulties and refuses to pay its share of the authority's budget, thereby harming the authority's activities, whose main goal is to preserve the Kishon stream and its surroundings as a natural asset, recognizing the importance and transformation of the stream into a valuable public resource and returning it as an asset to the general public.
Statement of Claim
The statement of claim specifies that the Bezan Group paid the Kishon River Authority the full amount of payments imposed on it for 25 years from 1995 to 2019 (inclusive), including after it was privatized. However, since 2020 it has refused to regularly transfer the imposed payments to the Kishon River Authority on her, which harms the authority's ability to fulfill its role.
In the statement of claim, it was emphasized that: "These things are particularly obvious in view of the ranking of the Bazen Group in the top ten of the most polluting enterprises in Israel, as part of the Environmental Impact Index for 2021 (published in August 2023) compiled and published by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and certainly in view of the Bezan Group's pollution of Nahal The Kishon both historically and today."
The lawsuit filed by the authority also states: "It is difficult to get rid of the strong impression that the Bezan Group aims to damage the operational capabilities of the Kishon River Authority, an environmental authority that works to protect, restore and preserve the Kishon River - among other things for actions that the group carried out and continues to carry out. These things are well known to the Bezan Group, whose share of the budget (according to its performance) is very significant."
Lawyers Bila Kahana-Levinzon and Roi Rotenbach from the Nashitz Brands Amir office, who represent the Nahal Kishon Authority, said:
The Kishon River Authority is an administrative authority established by law for the purpose of rehabilitating the Kishon River and its surroundings. In accordance with the law, the authority's budget is financed, among other things, by the factories near the river, among them the factories of the Bezan group. This budget is approved every year by the Minister of Environmental Protection and the Minister of Finance. As detailed in the lawsuit, the Bezan Group refuses to pay its full share of the Authority's budget, and its debt reaches approximately 4.5 million NIS. After all the Authority's attempts to get the Bezan Group to pay its debt failed, this lawsuit was filed.
Bazan was handed over to Lai Pa:
Bezen fully pays its share of the Kishon River Authority's budget, in amounts that correspond to the payments due to Mebezan according to law. At the same time, for many years the authority has required Mebezan and its subsidiaries to bear additional payments which do not come to Mebezan according to law and for which it has no legal basis to charge them.
Hezbollah was careful not to light the Baz,n so as not to make us happy....
where were the police
They keep confusing the brain with Zen. Stop and internalize Zen here all the time. Those who don't like it can ride a donkey or a horse instead of driving a car to work. They don't pollute. Hahaha
We need to sort things out with Bezan. Good and blessed night to everyone.
We the public are suffering this is not the first time. All Idesork you. The serious problem is on the other. We continue to suffer. Sick people who will sue them for millions of shekels will finally be fixed.