Jerusalem mayor suspected of paying minister’s ‘girlfriend’ a wage for doing nothing

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion is suspected of allowing an associate, and rumored girlfriend, of Likud’s Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem to earn a salary from the municipality despite not actively working there, Hebrew media reported on Sunday.

Police began a preliminary probe last month into possible illicit connections between Amsalem, Lion, and municipal officials following the revelations by Channel 12’s Hamevaker investigative program in September surrounding employee Sigalit Yona, whom some say is the minister’s romantic partner.

According to Channel 12’s Sunday news broadcast, authorities suspect Lion knowingly turned a blind eye to the matter. Hamevaker reported in September that Amsalem’s backing of Lion in the mayorship race was crucial to his victory, suggesting this was the reason the arrangement was allowed to continue.

Several months after Lion became mayor in 2018, the municipality began to receive complaints that Yona, an employee in the City Improvement Division, began clocking in to work in the morning, then disappearing until she returned to clock out in the evening, the September report found.

“She would come at 7 a.m., punch her card, and return at 7 p.m. in pajamas. We told her we don’t want to see this here,” an administrator at the division said.

Amsalem, a known firebrand in the Knesset, has been linked to several corruption scandals. He has proudly defended his attempts to appoint personal acquaintances to senior positions in government companies, saying he prefers to tap candidates he knows well.

Earlier this month, he was reportedly named in a sweeping corruption probe into Israel’s main labor federation, the Histadrut, and is expected to be summoned for questioning.

Yona was Amsalem’s office manager over 20 years ago, when the now-minister was himself director of Jerusalem’s City Improvement Division. He has denied the rumors of a romantic connection with Yona.

“Associates of the minister know she is more than an associate. She is his girlfriend,” a municipal administrator told Channel 12 in September.

After the municipality’s ombudsman revealed in 2020 that there were several such instances of employees not coming into the office, Yona was simply moved to another job where she could earn a wage, but nobody would notice her absence, another administrator told Hamevaker.

“Friends in the division said, she is David’s girlfriend and can do whatever she wants. Everyone is afraid of them — the council, the mayor. So they moved her to the Kiryat Yovel building,” another administrator said.

Channel 12 followed Yona over several working days, finding her going grocery shopping, visiting her mother, or staying at home all day, yet never going to the office.

In response to September’s report, Amsalem said Yona had been his office manager while he worked at the municipality, denied a romantic connection with her, and slammed “attempts to harm those close to me.”

The municipality said it has “zero tolerance” for violations of its rules and vowed to prevent such occurrences.

Police chose not to comment on the report.

According to Channel 12 on Sunday, the municipality’s fraud department is collecting evidence over suspicions that municipal officials ensured Yona was not fired and even increased her salary despite her years-long absence from work.

Evidence will be forwarded to the Israel Police, which will weigh opening an official probe next month against Amsalem, Lion, and municipal officials.

Police are also expected to look into Amsalem’s involvement in the employment of Yona’s relatives, including her daughter Yafit, appointed as chief of staff in his office, and her nephew Nehoray Rafaeli, who was appointed as his personal driver, Channel 12 reported.