Magal resigns Knesset amid sexual harassment scandal
Jewish Home MK announces he’ll step down from the Knesset but says his actions weren’t criminal
Jewish Home party MK Yinon Magal on Monday informed party leader Naftali Bennett that he would resign his seat in the Knesset amid swirling accusations of sexual harassment.
The journalist-turned-lawmaker, who is married, has been accused by four women in the past few weeks of making untoward advances and sexual harassment.
Magal insisted in a statement announcing his resignation that his actions were not criminal, but said that he understands that there were those who were harmed by his conduct.
“I received Yinon’s notification of his resignation, it’s the proper action,” Bennett, the education minister, said. “I hope that the proceedings he’s found in will end as quickly as possible and he can devote himself to his family and his future endeavors.”
Magal had resigned last Tuesday night from his position as Jewish Home’s Knesset faction chairman, a role comparable to the party’s parliamentary whip, after a meeting with Bennett to discuss the accusations against him.
“I made a mistake in my past conduct, which is even more unbecoming for the public official I am today,” Magal said in a statement last Wednesday. “I apologize from the bottom of my heart to those who were hurt. I am determined to correct my behavior and also to repair things on the personal and family level.”
Magal told Bennett last week that none of the accusations against him constituted criminal offenses, and that the things he said to female employees were said in a “different spirit” from the way in which they were being represented.
Magal’s seat will be filled by former MK and deputy education minister Avi Wortzman.
The Israel Police said Wednesday that it was launching an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct after two women claimed that Magal made advances toward them during and after his period as editor-in-chief of the Walla news site. Magal stepped down as the popular site’s editor in late 2014 in order to run for Knesset. A third woman complained subsequently, and the fourth did so on sunday.
Senior police officials said they believed Magal would be questioned in the coming days, the Ynet news site reported Sunday night.
On Sunday, a fourth woman who formerly worked with Magal accused him of sexual harassment, Channel 2 reported. The alleged harassment didn’t take place during his tenure at Walla, when the three other alleged acts of harassment took place.
The woman charged she ran into Magal some two years ago, and the now-lawmaker forcibly kissed her, leaving her “stunned,” the report said. The woman said she didn’t complain at the time, because she feared public backlash. However, once several other women stepped forward to testify against Magal, the woman said she decided to do so as well.
The first public allegations surfaced on Tuesday morning, in a Facebook post by Walla reporter Racheli Rottner, who said Magal had made lewd comments and advances toward her at his farewell party when he left Walla, shortly before he entered politics.
Hours later, Walla reporter Or Shukran also took to Facebook and accused Magal of “repeatedly stroking my behind, even after I asked him to stop,” an act that could be considered sexual assault. While Channel 2 reported Sunday that the woman who approached police on Sunday was the fourth to do so, the identity of the third woman wasn’t immediately clear.
The probe into the allegations was launched by the high-level task force Lahav 433, the Israel Police said in a statement last week. A source told Ynet that Magal would be questioned under caution if the police receive formal complaints against him. In the absence of formal accusations, investigators will determine whether a case can be built — based on any testimonies they collect — before submitting a request to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to question Magal.
As a serving Knesset member, Magal enjoyed immunity from “searches, detention, criminal hearings and legal proceedings that are not connected to his work as a member of Knesset” — an immunity that only the Knesset itself can lift. A lawmaker can also choose to forgo his or her immunity.
Magal initially responded to the charges with his own Facebook post, saying that he had made inappropriate comments, but would have expected friends to raise their concerns with him directly, rather than “shame” him in public. He later acknowledged “misconduct,” without going into details.
