Senior religious Zionist rabbis are conducting a review into sexual harassment allegations brought against one of Habayit Hayehudi’s MK, TOT learned.
The review was prompted by a Facebook post, in which Habayit Hayehudi activist Chagit Moriah-Gibor wrote she had knowledge of at least five women the lawmaker had harassed.
The MK, whose name is under embargo, has adamantly denied the allegations.
“There is a review team comprising Rabbi Eitan Eizman and myself,” Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu said. “Up until now what we have are people that heard all sorts of testimonies from women, so we decided to conduct a review.
We are gathering testimonies, hearing things. We are working to get something more substantiated. In the meantime, it has not crystallized into anything that could make us publish his name and demand his dismissal.”
Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett stated Thursday that he had spoken with the MK, who had denied the allegations.
Bennett called on women who felt they had experienced sexual harassment to file complaints with authorities.
“We spoke to the MK,” Eliyahu said. “He told us he would come any time we called on him.
We must be determined to look into the matter, but must also ensure the other side doesn’t get slandered for no reason.”
Eliyahu is not a member of Forum Takana, a group that seeks to fight sexual abuse by authority figures in the national-religious community, but he is no stranger to these issues, as last year he was instrumental in exposing a grave case of sexual assault against multiple women by Rabbi Ezra Scheinberg, a prominent rabbi from northern Israel.
Scheinberg was subsequently indicted and is currently standing trial on charges of rape, sodomy, indecent assault, and fraud.
