Mr. Sidon even admitted that he knew that the land was leased from the Civil Administration for 49 years (p. 1256, paras. 21-24).
- Whether the manner in which plaintiffs 3-7 proceeded throughout the entire process helps to formulate an aggregate conclusion on the aforesaid matter?
In fact, the eagerness of plaintiffs 3-7 to sign the contracts, despite the questions that came their way, did not begin when they came to sign the contracts. I got the impression that these plaintiffs sought to remove from their path the glaring question marks that arose among them during all the contacts they conducted, even though it was clear to them that these were "warning signals" that required careful consideration as to whether it was right to sign the agreements. Even when the warning signals became "red flags" when they were asked to act illegally while providing a false report to the tax authorities, plaintiffs 3-7 chose to sign the contracts anyway. In the meantime, the following warning signs can be enumerated:
First. According to them, the plaintiffs were required to obtain a considerable amount of cash for the purpose of paying the consideration to defendant 4, by means of the transfer of the Goren hearing place. Each of the plaintiffs stated that he went to the branch where his account was managed in order to withdraw considerable sums of money, with some of them testifying that this aroused astonishment among the various bank clerks. Thus, for example, Mr. Yaakov Horowitz noted that "before signing the contract, my son Moshe told me that the seller demands that the entire amount of the transaction be paid in cash. This demand seemed puzzling to me, but the feasibility of the deal seemed good. I went to the bank and withdrew part of the sum I was supposed to pay in cash" (paragraph 6 of his affidavit). Even Ariel Cohen, a lawyer by profession, claimed, "I will also note that the additional requirement to make the payment for the transaction in cash seemed puzzling to me" (paragraph 10 of his affidavit). In his interrogation, Cohen added, "I drove, I think, with Elia and brought all the cash with me, the ILS 175,000 that I took out of Bank Hapoalim, I remember that the whole bank was standing on its feet, asking why I needed the cash, and there was an incident there. I remember that day well, that I was gone, I barely make it to my bank..." (p. 325, s. 1-5; See also the interrogation of Ms. Carmit Shimoni Cohen, p. 1345 of Prov. S. 4).