Sara Netanyahu
Photo: Amit Shabi
Mrs. Netanyahu: fmr. PMR employee's allegations false
Statement of defense submitted by PM's wife Sara Netanyahu in suit by fmr. PMR employee Raban denies all allegations, requests for suit to be thrown out; 'Her shame was exposed publicly,' suit says, casting doubts as to whether Raban was 'truly Haredi'; polygraph test showed Raban was truthful on all significant articles, her attorneys claim.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife Sara presented her statement of defense to the Jerusalem District Labor Court Thursday, denying all misconduct allegations made against her by former Prime Minister's Residence employee Shira Raban.
"Raban must not have come to grips with the fact that the bizarre and unsightly extortion attempt she has fabricated failed and her shame was exposed to the public," the statement of defense's preamble read.
Mrs. Netanyahu's attorney, Yossi Cohen further alleged the suit was an "absurd publicity stunt" and that "someone exploited the plaintiff's naiveté and lack of understanding to embroil her—for their own ulterior motives—in a proceeding whose true significance she failed to comprehend."
Mrs. Netanyahu's statement of defense denied all wrongdoing (Photo: Haim Zach/GPO)
Mrs. Netanyahu's legal team also claimed the suit was not worthy of being brought before the court and should be stricken. It further alleged that following the court ordering that the term "slave" be removed from the suit, the plaintiff decided—while disregarding both the decision and intelligence of anyone reading it—to replace it with another Hebrew synonym for slave.
Raban's suit was dubbed absurd again, as well as contradictory and raising doubts as to Raban's awareness of what it included, while also questioning its bona fides.
As for Raban's claim that Mrs. Netanyahu intended to physically strike her, the statement of defense claimed that "even a dime store novel author will immediately understand someone fleeing in terror would not stop to change clothes and notice out of the corner of their teary eye everything that was going on around them."
The statement of defense further questioned why Raban, who made such heart-wrenching statements, wished to resume her former position. Not stopping at merely doubting Raban's account, however, the statement of defense noted it was "doubtful whether Raban was truly Haredi" and "a true Haredi person would not have acted as she did."
The plaintiff only worked an average of five hours a day over a period of twenty days, the statement noted, with many days only lasting three hours. "Her account, as to the circumstances of her departure from the residence was patently false," it said.
Mrs. Netanyahu's attorney said the suit was a 'publicity stunt' (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
"Once her attendance report was made public in the media, serving as a testament to her lies, Raban amended her account in a manner that undermines her entire claim as she forgot to fit the new version to the previously claimed details: working for eight hours a day only on changing clothes and shoes, washing hands and so on," the statement said.
Mrs. Netanyahu had no intentions of filing a countersuit, her representatives said before concluding with a request to have the suit stricken or demand it be amended again, also ordering Raban to shoulder the prime minister's wife's legal expenses.
Raban's attorneys Oren Gross and Naomi Landau responded by saying, "The statement of defense, belittling and condescending as it is, turns the current plaintiff into yet another victim of slander, like many before her who were mentally beaten by Sara Netanyahu.
"The plaintiff underwent a polygraph test that found her to be telling the truth on all significant articles of the suit. It's sufficient to read the haughty tone of Mrs. Netanyahu's defense to get an unparalleled understanding of the goings-on at the Prime Minister's Residence, and the treatment its employees—most of whom were of few means—were subjected to. It all coalesces to gradually uncover a frightening image of terror and fear, and unbelievable demands from her employers," the attorney's continued.
The statement of defense said Raban was not a 'true Haredi' (Photo: Channel 2 News)
"It's regrettable to note that instead of focusing on the ambiance of terror ruling over the Residence, after multiple testimonies only partially uncovered publically, the defense consistently and transparently chose to slander and besmirch every employee who dared sever the bond of silence among second floor employees, and to stigmatize and socially terrorize them in order to dissuade them from coming forward with their account."
Raban, a 24-year-old Haredi woman, described her alleged travails at the Prime Minister's Residence in an interview with Channel 2 News, before what she described as her escape from Mrs. Netanyahu. She burst into tears when she revealed the prime minister's wife called her a "lump of nothing."
"I didn't leave, I escaped. I escaped like my life depended on it. I don't know what might have happened if I'd stayed there another second longer. Not a minute; another second," she said at the time.
