Worker suing Sara Netanyahu files police complaint

A former employee of the prime minister's wife reported to the police for eight hours about her experiences of serving Sara Netanyahu.

By UDI SHAHAM
Updated: OCTOBER 30, 2017 12:42
Sara Netanyahu (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Sara Netanyahu
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The employee of the Prime Minister’s Residence who filed a lawsuit last week against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, filed a complaint on Sunday with the police in Jerusalem.
It was reported that “S.R.” testified for more than eight hours and presented details of her experiences during time spent working as a cleaner in the premier’s residence.
Channel 10 News reported that S.R. told the police that Mrs. Netanyahu wanted to hit her and did hit another employee.
Other witnesses are expected to be summoned to testify soon. After collecting testimony, the police will deliver it to the State Prosecutor’s Office and the Attorney-General’s Office to decide the future of the case.
On Friday, it was reported that S.R., 24, filed a lawsuit with the Jerusalem Labor District Court in which she complained about Netanyahu’s behavior as an employer.
The lawsuit document, in which S.R. is mentioned as “the slave,” claims that Sara Netanyahu bullied her and other employees, verbally attacked her and made “unreasonable demands” of her employees.
Among the alleged demands were insisting that the employee wash her hands more than a 100 times each day and being told to wait at a distance of at least four meters after knocking on the couple’s bedroom door.
The lawsuit also claims that Yair Netanyahu, their eldest son, conducted cleaning checks of the employees.
“The checkings were accompanied with humiliating treatment, while he was inciting his mother to punish the slaves: ‘Look mother, they did not clean here,’” the lawsuit reads.
S.R., who worked at the Prime Minister’s Residence for just over a month from August 27 to October 1, 2017, is asking for NIS 225,000 in damages.
The prime minister dismissed the allegations against his wife and son. “Stop it."
Same method, same lies, same newspaper and same lawyer,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Friday.
“No one buys this worn exercise. Everyone understands that they found a method to discredit the Netanyahu family and extort money from the country. Employed a few days, quitting, and nearly a quarter of a million shekels. A lucrative deal!” he exclaimed.
Channel 2 News reported on Sunday that one of the employees mentioned in the lawsuit – also referred to as a “slave” – received an offer from S.R.’s media consultant, Arik Rosenthal, to work in his firm as an assistant to the CEO.
It was said in the report that the consultant was also representing former Prime Minister Residence housekeeper Meni Naftali, who has already fought a legal battle with Netanyahu.
Rosenthal said in response to the report that he did so “out of sincere worry to her well-being” and out of his “commitment as a citizen to help the public.”
“I recommend to all of the qualified team handling the Netanyahu family to look into their heart and mirror, and try to explain how they can participate in such severe harm of their employees,” he said.
The Netanyahus said in response: “This is only the tip of the iceberg of the despised methods which the gang of Meni Naftali, lawyer Neomi Landau and the PR people are using. But the public is smart and understands that these are false allegations and wrong means – that all of their aims are to defame Sara Netanyahu and harm the prime minister,” they lamented.
“Who offers in a text message the job of assistant to the CEO to someone who he never met, who happens to be a central witness?” the statement added. “The whole conspiracy is revealed in this text message.”