Court orders former officer to compensate soldier he sexually harassed

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday ordered a former military officer to pay an ex-soldier NIS 300,000 ($80,000) for repeatedly sexually harassing him during their service together.

The court agreed to bar publication of the suspect’s name. The identity of the complainant, Arad Avital, was revealed at the beginning of the proceedings.

The court found that the Givati Brigade officer sexually harassed and performed indecent acts on Avital and two other soldiers over a period of three months at their army base, as well as other places.

In one incident described by the complainant, the officer exposed himself to Avital and ordered that he undress. The young soldier initially refused, but eventually agreed after the officer insisted. When the commander began touching Avital, the young soldier fled the scene.

The officer subsequently warned Avital that he expected the incident remain between them.

The suspect also would ask his soldiers to send him naked pictures of themselves and invite him to any orgies they might be having, the complaint said.

Avital said that when he tried to report the officer, the higher-ups gave the suspect full support. The complainant went on to undergo intense harassment from other soldiers and officers after he came forward.

The former soldier, who has since been diagnosed with PTSD, told the Ynet news site he burst into tears upon hearing the verdict, which felt like was a “weight lifted off of (his) soldiers.”

Avital said the ruling was not only a victory against the officer that had attacked him, but also the entire military system that had stood behind his attacker.

In 2014, a commander of a Givati infantry battalion was removed from his post after facing accusations of sexual harassment from a subordinate female soldier.

Since then, a number of other senior officers have been accused or convicted of sexual harassment, including Ofek Buchris, who commanded the army’s storied Golani Brigade.