Israelis Rise Up Against the Oligarchs

Ilyan Marshak was outraged when he heard that Bank Leumi would forgive as much as $42 million in debt owed by companies controlled by Nochi Dankner, one of Israel’s so-called oligarchs—a reference to the group of 20 families that control about 50 percent of the value of the Tel Aviv stock exchange. Marshak wanted to know why a rich man was getting a break while he worked odd jobs to pay off about 100,000 shekels ($27,600) of debt. “These tycoons are getting bargains because of their influence in our economy, and that comes at the expense of the public,” says the 28-year-old Tel Aviv resident.

Marshak was one of thousands who posted on a Facebook page titled “Bank Leumi Consumer Boycott,” after a local paper reported in mid-April that the bank had agreed to erase some of Dankner’s debt as part of a broader corporate debt restructuring. The scion of a family that made its fortune in table salt and real estate, Dankner has spent the past 15 years building his own sprawling empire, which includes the country’s biggest supermarket chain, Shufersal, and its largest mobile operator, Cellcom Israel. The deal with Leumi would have allowed the businessman some breathing room as his IDB Holding struggles to meet payments on about $560 million in debt.