Settlement council keeps chairman despite sexual assault allegations
Etzion municipal body says no reason for Davidi Perl to lose his position; he paid hush money to female accuser
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Etzion Bloc Regional Council said Monday that it sees no reason to end Davidi Perl’s tenure as its chairman, after reviewing the findings of an internal investigation into suspicions of sexual assault, and despite his acknowledgement that he paid the woman accusing him to keep quiet.
Perl, who faced calls for his resignation over the revelations, protested his innocence, and said he paid the woman off solely to protect his family and prevent the accusations becoming public.
A six-person team — including one woman — was established to investigate the matter on behalf of the council, which was then to decide Perl’s fate.
Based on the findings, the council said that “under the current circumstances we see no obstacle to the head of the council continuing in his position.”
According to the Srugim website, which caters to Israel’s religious-Zionist community, the vote to retain Perl passed with 13 in favor, one against, and one abstention.
Channel 10 television reported last month that Perl had agreed to pay a reported NIS 200,000 ($53,000) to a 20-year-old Jerusalem woman who filed a complaint against him with the Takana Forum, which specializes in dealing discreetly with sexual abuse cases in the Modern Orthodox community. In return, the woman withdrew her complaint and Perl agreed to not run for council in any future elections.
The media exposure put the Etzion Bloc community in a quandary, Channel 10 said, because the Takana Forum has maintained its policy of strict silence on any cases it deals with, refusing to even confirm if there was a case against Perl.
The council based its decision to keep Perl in his job on the recommendations of the team, which said in statement that “it found no significant basis for a suspicion of sexual assault” and could not take the side of either the accuser or the defendant.
After having reviewed all of the available material — including the signed agreement and the claims by accuser and accused — the team said “the two versions are plausible and reasonably and rationally line up with the facts of the circumstances as they were placed before us, and under the existing circumstances it was not possible to decide between them.”
Amichai Gordon, a member of the investigative team, told Army Radio that any clear indication of sexual assault would have led to the recommendation for Perl’s dismissal, but that the evidence was not there.
“Our conclusion, as representatives of the public, is to give every complainant the space and respect she deserves. It is also important that we don’t hang every person on the strength of one individual’s word against another,” he said.
The council noted that it had appealed to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit for his input on the matter but “so far we have not received his response, and after receiving the response we will consider anew our decision.”
According to Channel 10, the case began a year ago when the woman lodged a complaint with the Takana Forum. The forum questioned the woman in detail and reached the conclusion that her accusations were valid. Takana consulted with Mandelblit, who advised the forum to deal with the matter as best it could, given that the alleged victim refused to file a police complaint out of fear of making her identity public.
Takana, which includes prominent rabbis and officials, tried unsuccessfully for months to persuade Perl to attend a hearing. Finally, one of the rabbis hired an attorney to represent the woman and two months ago managed to secure Perl’s consent for a negotiated settlement. In return for the payment the accuser would retract her complaint and Perl would not run in future elections.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
