Israel's ruling Kadima party is being sued by the opposition party Likud for its breach of commitment of returning funds, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Monday.
According to the daily, the right-wing Likud filed a case against the centrist Kadima, headed by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for now, in the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday, complaining that Knesset (parliament) Members who left Likud and joined Kadima did not return funds as what they pledged before their leaving.
Citing the indictment, the report said that most Likud's Knesset Members (MK) signed a letter of commitment with the Israeli bank Hapoalim in 2003, in which they pledged to transfer party funds to a Likud bank account for the duration of the previous (16th) Knesset.
The letter emphasized that the commitment would be effective even if the MKs left Likud.
In November 2005, before the end of the 16th Knesset, 14 Likud MKs quit the party to form the Kadima party.
After the split, Kadima has failed to live up to their promise by transferring all the pledged funds to Likud account after an initial transfer of 1.7 million NIS (410,000 U.S. dollars), leaving the remaining 385,000 U.S. dollars unpaid.
According to the report, an agreement on this issue was reached between the two parties in 2006 after negotiations, by which Kadima pledged to return the remainder of the funds.
However, the funds have not yet been transferred into the Likud account, leading to today's lawsuit.
The Kadima party was formed in November 2005 by former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who quit the Likud party shortly before the establishment of Kadima in an attempt to shrug off the restrictions from within the Likud in carrying out his unilateral disengagement plan.
After Sharon was down with illnesses, Kadima became the largest party in the Knesset following the 2006 elections, in which it won 29 of the 120 seats.
Source: Xinhua
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