Minister’s associate resigns from municipal job amid suspicions of doing no work

The rumored girlfriend of a government minister has resigned from her position at the Jerusalem municipality amid allegations that she was drawing a salary but not doing any work.

Sigalit Yona stepped down despite having recently battled to keep her position, Channel 12 reported Tuesday.

Police reportedly began a preliminary probe last month into possible illicit connections between Likud’s Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, and municipal officials following the revelations by Channel 12’s “Hamevaker” investigative program in September surrounding Yona, who some say is the minister’s romantic partner.

“Hamevaker” found that she allegedly never went into City Hall to work.

Last week, Yona attended a pre-dismissal hearing, arriving with an attorney, Channel 12 reported. At the hearing, she offered explanations to the claims made in the investigative report, and was restored to part-time work.

Amsalem insisted to Channel 12 on Saturday that Yona is not his romantic partner, though he appeared to confirm that she had gone on a vacation with him, and accused the network of “getting into my pants.”

The next day, Amsalem’s office said the minister was taking legal action against Channel 12 and its parent company, Keshet, accusing the network of false reporting that harmed his reputation. In a letter, Amsalem demanded an apology and financial compensation, and that Channel 12 retract its report.

Earlier that day, Hebrew media reported that authorities suspect Lion knowingly turned a blind eye to the matter of Yona’s employment. “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 would disappear until she clocked out in the evening, the September report found.

Amsalem 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 her.

“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 nobody would notice her absence, another administrator told “Hamevaker.”

Channel 12 followed Yona over several working days, finding her going grocery shopping, visiting her mother, or staying at home all day.

In response to the September 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.