Coalition chairman MK Idit Silman claimed in media interviews over the weekend that she was recently attacked at a gas station in Modi'in, when a man approached her and physically knocked her onto her car. However, Silman did not respond to Walla concerning where and when the attack occurred. Bennett stated that he is "supporting Idit."
Sources in the Knesset claimed that so far "the issue has not been brought to the attention of the Knesset Guard Sergeant-at Arms." Silman was scheduled to meet with the deputy Knesset Guard Sergeant-at Arms on Sunday, although she did not provide details about the attack, but sought to investigate in general the incitement and threats directed against her, things that she reported recently and were known to the Knesset Sergeant-at-Arms even before.
Shmulik Silman, her husband, claimed in a call to Walla that "she is not making it up, Idit is an honest person." Silman was asked why his wife did not answer questions about where and when the attack took place, responding: "She woke me up at night, told me she stopped and refueled and someone pushed her. I asked her if she wanted us to go back and she told me there was no reason to return. That's a fact."
Silman was repeatedly asked during the conversation when the attack occurred. "I do not remember by heart, I can open a record. I told her to write a record now and to recreate with herself when it was," he replied. According to him, the day after the attack she told "her good friends and her staff, you can check her with a polygraph."
He said he was aware that her version of events raised questions. "You are right. She is not making up a story. For the last two months she has been goal-oriented and this was for her in order to survive. Now she will go and open a record and look closely. She has a burden at home and also an unbearable burden in the Knesset." Silman said that his wife had been receiving abusive messages recently and had passed all the materials to the Knesset Sergeant-at-Arms. "Look at how many complaints, and there is nothing."
After doubts arose about Silman's version of events, Knesset members from the opposition asked Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev and Knesset Sergeant-at-Arms Yuval Chen to investigate the case.
MK Michael Malchieli of Shas wrote to Bar Lev that "since gas stations are filmed, I demand that you take active action to follow in the footsteps of the anonymous attacker, and exhaust with him all the severity of the law. Today it is her, tomorrow it is us." MK Moshe Arbel wrote to the Knesset Sergeant-at-Arms that "a violent attack on Knesset members is crossing a red line that cannot be agreed upon and must be respond to with enforcement and a clear and absolute condemnation."
Silman herself recently posted on her Facebook page that, "For six months, since the election and the formation of the government, my family and I have been harassed, threatened and attacked on a daily basis. I have already stopped counting the complaints I submitted to the Knesset Sergeant-at-Arms."
"Friends, you are confused: I am not under investigation, rather the one who incites against me online and offline 24/7," Silman wrote. "Unfortunately, there is more than one complaint to the Knesset Sergeant-at-Arms, this is how it is when you get used to a crazy situation. I recently sat down with the Knesset director-general and Sergeant-at-Arms, who were given the details, which within the recent busy days of the budget were given orally and in close proximity to the event, but the formal and written report to the Knesset Sergeant-at-Arms was delayed. I fully trust the authorities and thank everyone who supported, supports and strengthens me."
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tweeted on his Twitter account: "In recent months, and even more so in the run-up to the passing of the budget, Idit Silman and her family are going through a mask of pressure, slander and extremely severe attacks, which few elected officials have experienced. I support Idit and greatly appreciate her resilience and the hard and thorough work she does in the Knesset, in order to get Israel back on track."