Jerusalem – Trial Against Netanyahu Family Opens; Sara Netanyahu May Testify

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    File: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and his wife Sara Netanyahu (L) in Ramat Gan, Israel, EPA/ABIR SULTANJerusalem – The trial of Meni Naftali, the former house manager of the prime minister’s residence, against the Netanyahu family on accusations of labor law violations opened Wednesday with Naftali testifying and Sara Netanyahu expected to testify.

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    Naftali is seeking hundreds of thousands of shekels for alleged poor treatment and failure to pay him for overtime hours.

    The state pushed hard to avoid having to file an affidavit by Sara Netanyahu, but Jerusalem Labor Court Judge Dita Pruginin rejected the repeated requests, writing, “Court orders are not a recommendation,” meaning they must be complied with, and the state had no excuse for continuing to attempt to avoid filing Netanyahu’s affidavit.

    Last week, Netanyahu finally filed her affidavit, rejecting all of Naftali’s claims.

    On March 10, the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office Civil Division filed nine affidavits from state employees defending the conduct of the Netanyahu family and the state against Naftali’s accusations and slamming him as disparaging Sara and other employees.

    Naftali was house manager from February 2011 until November 2012.

    Of the nine employees, Ezra Seidof, Deputy Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office, has been featured the most in the headlines recently, following Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein’s February 26 decision to order a criminal investigation, separate from Naftali’s civil claim, into the affairs surrounding the Prime Minister’s residence.

    While Weinstein specifically exempted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from criminal suspicion at this stage, the State Comptroller’s report on the issue appeared to suggest that the focus of the probe, boosted by new testimony from Naftali, could be Seidof, with the prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, possibly also in the cross-hairs.

    In his affidavit filed Tuesday, Seidof went on the attack, stating that Naftali’s “relations were not good” with some of the workers.

    Seidof also rebuts Naftali’s claims against Sara that she abused him and discriminated him on a racial basis, noting “I did not witness any racism or racist statements … Naftali never claimed that he wanted to end his job over this.”

    He continued, “even on Naftali’s last day at work, he came back and said that if he received funding for continuing in his position, he would remain as house manager.”

    Seidof also rejected Naftali’s claims that Seidof has promised him he could become an official government employee, whereas he started in the position of house manager on a temporary basis.

    Rather, Seidof said he was always clear with Naftali that the house manager position required a competitive open process, a regulation which was only changed in October 2013.

    Perhaps the most glaring allegations were leveled by Ofra Shimon, a former employee of Naftali’s at the residence, who described him as a violent, abusive boss who punched and pushed his employees and was disrespectful toward Sara Netanyahu, going out of his way to enrage and irritate her.

    Shimon, who was part of Naftali’s staff at the residence for two years and seven months beginning in 2010 said in her affidavit presented on Tuesday that throughout her time working there Naftali hurt her, cursed her, harassed her and interfered with her work.

    She said on a number of occasions she was driven to tears by Naftali’s behavior, which included taking food that she personally prepared for the Netanyahus and throwing it in the garbage before telling the family they had to order food from outside.

    Shimon said that Naftali would go out of his way to avoid doing tasks assigned by Mrs. Netanyahu and that he would ignore the couple when they tried to contact him on the house’s intercom.

    She also related an anecdote in which Naftali allegedly poured water on the floor of a hallway in the house and said “I hope she [Mrs. Netanyahu] slips and falls.”

    She said that he would falsify work hours in favor of employees he was friends with and would not allow her to perform overtime hours.

    Shimon added that during the entire time she worked for the residence Mrs. Netanyahu treated her respectfully and that she does not know of any employees who were physically or emotionally harmed or bitter about their time working for the first lady.

    Multiple former employees are also expected to testify on Naftali’s behalf.

    Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post


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    lazerx
    lazerx
    9 years ago

    sounds like he wanted to extort money from her by saying he would bring nasty public charges against her to ruin her and she refused to give in.

    Maybe he truth will come out.