Arab party candidate under pressure to withdraw over sexual harassment allegations
Seven women have reportedly complained about Jafar Farah, who is fourth on the Joint List, but his Hadash party has not removed him
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A politician running for Knesset with the Arab-majority Hadash party is under pressure to withdraw amid allegations of sexual harassment filed by a number of women, according to Hebrew media reports.
Human rights activist Jafar Farah is second on the Hadash list. The party is running on a joint slate with the Ta’al and Balad parties, in which he is positioned in the fourth slot.
Farah is facing allegations of harassment that were lodged with two lobby groups, Women Against Violence and Assiwar-The Feminist Arab Movement, which claim that since 2019 they have received six testimonies, the Ynet news site reported Wednesday.
The Haaretz newspaper reported last month that a further complaint was made directly to the Hadash party.
Hadash has so far decided not to pull Farah from its slate.
The party formed a special team to look into the allegations, but has stressed that it is not an investigative committee and is not authorized to determine whether the claims against Farah are true. Rather, the team looked at how the parties will deal with the matter from a political, ethical, and organizational point of view, Ynet reported.
In August, Hadash adopted the team’s recommendations, which included proposing to Farah that he withdraw his candidacy, but he refused, according to the outlet.
Farah has issued statements completely denying the allegations against him, and claiming that the timing of the recent resurfacing of complaints raises concerns that they are an attempt to harm him, the Hadash party, and the Joint List. He has also claimed that he has not been presented with the allegations against him.
Nonetheless, he has expressed regret if any behavior of his may have unwittingly caused bad feelings and apologized for any unintended impact it may have had.
On Monday, Haaretz reported that the Hadash review team found that there were seven complaints made against Farah by women who have no connection to each other. Complaints have come from Palestinian, Jewish, and foreign women, the report said, citing a document summarizing a party meeting Saturday at which the review team’s findings were discussed.
During the meeting, members of the team put it to Farah that he had been presented with the complaints — contradicting his statements that he hasn’t — after which he stormed from the room, Haaretz reported. Team members told those present that Farah was well aware of the allegations. They noted that the complainants had asked the women’s groups not to publish the details.
According to the report, the review team found that the complaints ranged “from borderline acts that may be open to interpretation, to extremely serious and obvious physical acts.”
The team determined that if a complaint is filed with police, or any of the testimony is publicized in the media, Hadash should demand that Farah be removed from its Knesset slate.
In a statement Sunday, Hadash said that it was not going to ignore the claims against Farah, but that he should not be found guilty without due process.
Israel is scheduled to hold elections on October 27.
The Times of Israel Community.