The legal adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office should be dismissed for helping
its former chief of staff, Natan Eshel, MK Nachman Shai (Labor) wrote in a
letter to Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein yesterday.
“I ask that you
urgently examine the activities and behavior of [Prime Minister’s Office legal
adviser Shlomit] Barnea-Pargo, when it comes to Natan Eshel,” Shai wrote. “It
seems like there were serious problems requiring, in my understanding, her
dismissal.”
Barnea-Pargo and the Prime Minister’s Office denied media
reports last week that she met with Eshel, who was forced to resign from his
post in a plea deal over charges of sexual harassment, to speak about the
possibility of him joining coalition talks.
Since then, however, Labor
leader Shelly Yacimovich released an email she accidentally received from Eshel,
which was addressed to Barnea- Pargo and asked her to look into the legality of
him being on the negotiation team.
The Prime Minister’s Office said
Barnea-Pargo looked into legal, not ethical or public, aspects of Eshel being
part of coalition negotiations, and whether it defied his plea bargain, and
found that there are no legal limitations on him doing so if he is not an
employee of the civil service. However, she suggested that Eshel consult with
the Civil Service Commission.
In other words, not only did Eshel request
a legal opinion from the Prime Minister’s Office adviser, he received
one.
“Barnea-Pargo gave a legal opinion to Mr. Natan Eshel, even though
it was not part of her job and and she was not asked to do so by the prime
minister or anyone in his office,” Shai wrote in his letter to the
attorney-general. “In addition, after she was asked about the topic, she denied
her involvement, even though it turned out that she gave legal
advice.”
Meanwhile, incoming Tzipi Livni Party MK Amram Mitzna spoke out
against the involvement of people accused of sexual misconduct in public life –
even former justice minister Haim Ramon, who was one of the party’s
founders.
“On principle, I think that [Eshel] is an unworthy person to
continue pulling the strings at the front of the stage, and should not do so
backstage, either,” Mitzna said in an interview with Galei Israel, the Judea and
Samaria local radio station. “If Netanyahu wants to ask him for advice behind
closed doors, then fine, but it is not right to get to that point with these
kinds of people.”
When asked about Ramon, who, unlike Eshel, was
convicted of indecent assault, Mitzna responded: “That’s right. That’s why he
was not in the front of the stage, and I think it’s undoubtably
problematic.”
Eshel left his post as chief of staff in the Prime
Minister’s Office in February after a plea bargain with the Civil Service
Commission, which determined he invaded a female staffer’s privacy by
photographing her without her permission and entering her personal email
account. As part of the deal, Eshel agreed not to return to the civil service,
but he remains close with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his
family.
Likud Beytenu reiterated on Monday night that its negotiations
team consists of Yitzhak Molcho, David Shimron, Moshe Leon and Yoav
Mani.
However, the party would not confirm or deny whether Eshel would be
an external adviser in the process or comment on the issues surrounding him.