MK’s wife calls to ask if he’s the one accused of assault

As rumors swirled Thursday that a Jewish Home lawmaker had repeatedly sexually assaulted women, the party’s outspoken MK Bezalel Smotrich said his wife called him to ask if it was him.

“This is a tough day. My wife called me earlier saying that her father called her crying, wondering if I was the MK accused of harassment,” Smotrich told the Knesset TV channel.

Smotrich said the Jewish Home party would convene at a later date to discuss the allegations made against the unnamed senior member of the party.

“When things become clear, we will meet and decide,” he said. “Of course we will not discount anyone.”

Smotrich, who has made a number of controversial statements in the past, indicated he doubted the allegations leveled against his colleague.

“I know my colleague, it’s hard to believe he’d do a thing like this,” he said.

According to reports in Hebrew-language media, the unnamed Jewish Home MK vehemently refuted the allegations against him, calling the claims “a wicked attempt to harm me.”

“For years, there have been reports published like this,” the Walla news website quoted him as saying.

“All of the people who were mixed up in these rumors in the past denied them and said ‘there was nothing.’ I don’t know what it is about, it is a lie. There never was anything like this and there is nothing,” he said.

The claims drew media attention Wednesday evening after a Jewish Home activist went public with the allegations on Facebook. Chagit Moriah-Gibor, who said she knew some of the victims, posted a public appeal for other victims to step forward, saying none were willing to lodge an official complaint.

“The stories are mounting and the silence is very deafening to me,” Moriah-Gibor wrote.

On Thursday, team of rabbis affiliated with the Jewish Home said they had gathered testimony to review the claims. But the task force, led by Safed chief rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, said later in the day their investigation did not uncover sufficient evidence to summon the lawmaker for questioning or call for his resignation.

The Jewish Home party has previously faced allegations of sexual harassment by its lawmakers. In November 2015, former MK Yinon Magal resigned from the Knesset over sexual assault claims. In February, the Tel Aviv district attorney’s office announced it halted the probe into Magal after police said they had not found enough evidence to recommend an indictment.

Stuart Winer contributed to this report.