'Resh doesn't want to testify in Eshel affair'

PMO staffer's lawyer says she doesn't want to "turn her life into common property"; A-G to decide whether to probe allegations.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Nathan Eshel 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Nathan Eshel 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
The Prime Minister's Office employee known as 'resh,' who allegedly complained to senior PMO officials that PMO Bureau Chief Natan Eshel behaved improperly toward her, has requested not to testify on the issue, her attorney told Army Radio on Sunday.
"Resh does not want to be involved in the matter. She does not want to involve the public, the media or the authorities in what did or did not happen," her attorney Harel Arnon stated, adding that her involvement in the affair would "turn her name and her life into common property."
The investigation of Prime Minister’s Office Bureau Chief Natan Eshel has escalated to an investigation on sexual harassment, Channel 2 reported Friday evening.
On Saturday, Channel 1 reported that Eshel allegedly took pictures with a cellular phone from under the complainant’s skirt.
The Jerusalem Post could not independently confirm the veracity of either report.
The reports conflict with a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office Wednesday, asserting that the allegations against Eshel were not sexual in nature.
Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein is expected to convene a discussion on Sunday on the findings of the investigation in Eshel’s case so far, and whether they warrant opening an investigation against him and whether such an investigation will be criminal or disciplinary in nature.
Earlier this week, it emerged that Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser, communications director Yoaz Hendel and Maj.-Gen. Yohanan Locker took the complaints of a female staffer to Weinstein.
MK Shelly Yacimovich (Labor) called upon Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Saturday to publicly support his three aides who accused Eshel of harassing his employee.
“It would be a scandal if any of them end up paying a price for acting ethically and according to the law,” Yacimovich said.
“If Netanyahu harms any of them, it would send the public messages that they should not report such violations of the law, that women’s bodies are up for grabs, and if wrong is done to them no one will help them.”