Netanyahus’ ex-housekeeper won’t take fall for spending report

A former housekeeper at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence, who is suing the state over his employment conditions, on Wednesday rejected accusations by the Likud party that he was responsible for inappropriate financial practices and overspending uncovered in a state comptroller report.

In interviews to the media, Menny Naftali expressed his indignation at being dragged into the furor over Tuesday’s report, which said expenditures at the residence were excessive, and that budgetary practices had not been carried out with integrity and transparency.

“I feel like a woman who was raped and then told ‘shut your mouth, take the money, and go home,'” Naftali said. “Is that the way you want things to be in our country? Well, I am not like that, I go with the truth.”

Naftali, who has filed charges over alleged mistreatment at the hands of the Netanyahus during his period of employment, promised to expose more about how the residence was run and hinted that there were questionable cash issues that even the bombshell report missed.

“They have made a mistake because I didn’t plan to get involved in the report,” he fumed. “As soon as they blame me as the housekeeper that I unjustly spent money, then apparently they need to understand that the whole of Israel should know where all the money was in 2011 until the end of 2012 when I worked there. And that looks likely to be really bad, because those are things that I didn’t want to come out with and that I didn’t think I would reveal.”

“I am about to take off the gloves, but it seems like that is what they wanted,” he said. “It seems like they want to bring me to a public debate and not the court of labor damages.”

Rejecting accusations that he had been violent with other workers, Naftali suggested that other employees who had also wanted to sue over their conditions at the prime minister’s residence were intimidated into dropping their claims.

“I have tapes of workers who wanted to sue and suddenly they send a letter to Mrs. Netanyahu about how nice she is,” he said and called for a probing of Ezra Seidoff, deputy director for operations and assets at the Prime Minister’s Office who, he claimed, played a greater role in how money was handled between the official residence and the PM’s office.

“He needs to give an account of the things he has done and is doing today,” Naftali said.

Netanyahu’s legal representative in the law suit, Shuli Eshbol, backed up the assertion by Likud that records showed a spike in expenses during Naftali’s term of employment as housekeeper.

“There is a full match between the rise in expenses and their drop afterwards, during the period of employment of housekeeper Menny Naftali,” she told Army Radio.

“It is important to note the expenses of the Prime Minister’s Residence have been reduced significantly over the past two years,” a statement from Likud had charged just after the comptroller’s report was released. “The expenses significantly increased during a specific period of time when the house’s maintenance and operations were directed by Mr. Menny Naftali – an embittered former public employee.”

The party accused Naftali of “leading a campaign of slander and defamation against the prime minister with the specific goal of illegitimately leveraging his claim for financial gain from the state coffers and to damage the prime minister and the Likud party during this period of Knesset elections.”

Released exactly a month before elections, the comptroller report could potentially hurt Netanyahu in the polls and could lead to legal action, leaving open the possibility that the prime minister and his wife could face charges over financial improprieties.