OY VEY ! IN ISRAEL TOO

Prominent Israeli journalist accuses former PM Olmert of harassment

By Eran Swissa and Gadi Golan

Israel Hayom
November 19, 2017

Veteran Army Radio correspondent Hadas Shtaif has accused former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of sexually harassing her.

Speaking at a Saturday town hall meeting in Ness Ziona in central Israel, Shtaif said that the incident occurred at the Israel Broadcast Authority's television studio when Olmert allegedly pinned her against a wall and "whispered in my hear while licking me with his revolting tongue."

"I pushed him away from me in disgust and since then haven't looked at him," Shtaif said.

The journalist said she never filed a complaint because if she had complained about everyone who harassed her, she "would have been dubbed a 'serial complainant.'"

Later Saturday, Shtaif took to Twitter and posted, "It's all true. At the time, I told a lot of people. I was disgusted. I haven't forgotten. So I believe all the women who are daring to come out 30 years later and speak up. We're in the middle of a revolution. For the sake of our daughters, our sons, our granddaughters and grandsons. It's our responsibility."

Shtaif said she had received messages from other women who claimed that Olmert had harassed them, too. One such message read: "I was working ... with his father, Mordechai, during the election. … Ehud [Olmert] would pinch the girls' nipples. We all crossed our arms over our chests when we walked past him. I've been telling friends and family about him for years."

MK Shelly Yachimovich, who was herself a journalist before entering politics, tweeted Saturday evening about her time covering the victims of former President Moshe Katsav, who was convicted of rape and served five years in prison: "About 10 years ago, at the time of the Katsav affair, a woman did, in fact, contact me and tell me that about 20 years earlier, Olmert had assaulted her."

Yachimovich said that the women had not been able to file a complaint for reasons that included the statute of limitations.

A statement issued on behalf of Olmert said: "These things never happened."

Former adviser to Olmert Rachael Risby-Raz has defended him in a social media post in which she said that anyone who knows Olmert "knows that he is a warm, goodhearted person. In over 40 years of public service, anyone who worked with him can testify that he has a lot of respect for women and worked to get them promoted."

Shtaif has also shared accusations of sexual harassment that various women have leveled against radio host Natan Zahavi, who responded to her statements about Olmert by writing: "You're a strong, concerned, fighting woman – why didn't you file a complaint with the police?"

When Zahavi was asked why he hadn't sued Shtaif, he said that a lawsuit was in the works and would be filed "in a day or two."

Meanwhile, in another weekend town hall meeting in Beersheba, Odelia Carmon – who was identified only by her first initial in the proceedings against Katsav – said, "Of course I've forgiven him. I'm in a different place today. … From the moment he was tried and sentenced, I felt that justice had been done."

"What was important to me was the verdict that explicitly said he was a rapist and a pathological liar," Carmon said.

When asked about the fact that Katsav has never voiced remorse, Carmon said, "I don't need to forgive him since this is a man who lives in total denial and never took responsibility for his actions. But he's paid his debt to society, and that's enough for me."