‘Crude lies’: Sara Netanyahu testifies in former employee’s abuse lawsuit
Cleaning staff member Sylvie Genesia is suing PM’s wife for NIS 650,000 over alleged abuse at PM’s residence; defendant says she is regularly extorted
Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, testified at the Jerusalem Regional Labor Court on Monday in a lawsuit filed against her by Sylvie Genesia, the latest former employee to allege harassment at Netanyahu’s hands, dismissing the allegations as “crude lies.”
Genesia, who worked as a member of the cleaning staff at the Prime Minister’s Residence on Balfour Street, is suing Netanyahu and the HR company that employed her for NIS 650,000 ($179,400) in damages for mistreatment she says she experienced while working at the residence.
The allegations made against the wife of the prime minister include harassment, humiliation and repeated violations of Genesia’s working conditions, including that Sara Netanyahu called Genesia names and threw an iron at her.
In court Monday, Netanyahu responded to the allegations, saying, “These are crude lies. I didn’t call her names,” according to Hebrew media reports.
Netanyahu also emphasized that she wasn’t Genesia’s employer and accused her of violating her privacy, according to Hebrew media reports.
During his cross-examination of Netanyahu, Genesia’s lawyer, Opheer Shimshon, asked the defendant how she expresses her anger and anxiety. Netanyahu replied that she has lived with a “stigma” for 30 years.
“Since the 1990s, everyone has known that you can make money off of Sara Netanyahu.” She added: “I don’t deserve this. I work hard too. I do a lot for the country.”
Netanyahu also said that Genesia would arrive at work hungover and record things. “There is not a single word of truth in her affidavit,” said Netanyahu, who alleged that if she were not the subject of the case it would not even be taking place.
This is not the first time that Netanyahu has been accused of mistreating or abusing employees.
In 2017, Menny Naftali, a former caretaker at the Prime Minister’s Residence, successfully sued Netanyahu and was awarded NIS 170,000 compensation (about $43,735) by the Jerusalem Labor Court. The court found that Naftali had been mistreated by Netanyahu, suffering both verbal and emotional abuse, and had been misled over his terms of employment at the residence.
The judge in that case wrote in her ruling that “numerous testimonies presented to the court point to an atmosphere of harmful work conditions at the residence due to the behavior of Mrs. Netanyahu and her attitude toward the workers. These included irrational demands, insults, humiliation and outbursts of rage.”
Another former worker at the Prime Minister’s Residence, a 56-year-old immigrant from France whose identity has not been disclosed, sued Sara Netanyahu for mistreatment in 2020, seeking NIS 650,000 ($189,000) in damages for work-related harassment and abuse.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu is embroiled in other legal issues. In December, the police opened a criminal investigation over allegations she sought to intimidate a witness and interfere in the ongoing corruption case against her husband, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The investigation is being conducted by the Israel Police and the cybercrimes department of the State Attorney’s Office, and follows a report by Channel 12’s “Uvda” program that said Sara Netanyahu ordered Hanni Bleiweiss, her husband’s late aide, to orchestrate protests and an online campaign against Hadas Klein, a key witness in one of the cases in which the prime minister is standing trial.
The Times of Israel Community.