Far-right Bayit Yehudi faction chairman MK Yinon Magal stepped down from his position Wednesday, following allegations that he sexually harassed journalists before entering politics. Magal made the sexual offenses to journalists for Walla News after he resigned from his position of editor-in-chief at the website last year.
Former faction chairman of the far-right Bayit Yehudi party, MK Yinon Magal, and the leader of the party, Education Minister Naphtali Bennett (Photo: TV Caption)
The journalist, Racheli Rottner, wrote a lengthy Facebook post about his overtures. Rottner said that, when she worked for Magal, he would tell her to dress sexier for her video segments, “like a librarian from a porno.” She described an interaction between her and Magal – both of whom are married – at his goodbye party, after he announced that he was leaving journalism for the extreme-right politics.
According to Rottner, Magal sat close to her on a sofa and said: “Tell me, did you feel like there was tension between us while we worked together? …I always felt sexual tension. You didn’t notice?” Rottner told him more than once that she didn’t know what he was talking about, or as she wrote: “Haha, Yinon, you really felt tension? I had no idea, teehee, you’re so crazy.” Then, she wrote, Magal said: “‘Now, I can tell you this, because I’m not your boss anymore, but whenever we worked together I was horny for you. I was looking at you and thinking about your tits and ass. And I would talk to other people about your tits and ass and how horny they make me.’ “Magal smiled when he saw my embarrassment and said that’s what he likes about me, that I come from a background of a religious school and I’m very innocent… and after that, he got up to speak to all the people invited about Bayit Yehudi and values and family,” Rottner wrote. The writer said she had not spoken to Magal since then, but found out that other female workers at Walla said he made unwanted advances, including touching them.
Or Shukrun, another journalist who worked with Magal wrote on Facebook Tuesday that he “touched my behind more than once despite my requests that he stop, asked me to join him in the bathroom and asked other questions that cannot be understood any other way. “He brought the shame on himself,” Shukrun, who said she voted for Bayit Yehudi, wrote of his complaint that Rottner did not come to him directly. The police said Tuesday evening it will examine the claims made against Magal and that a decision about the nature of the probe and which police unit will be tasked with looking into the claims will be made on Wednesday.
Knesset Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women and Gender Equality Chairwoman MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash – Joint List) said “sexual harassment is never a discussion ‘between friends.’” Touma-Sliman called the accusations a test for Education Minister Naphtali Bennett, as Bayit Yehudi’s leader, saying he must sound a clear voice against sexual harassment and assault and act to remove Magal from the party and the Knesset. “Some men still don’t understand that women are not objects,” she added.
