Legal troubles mount for Sara Netanyahu

Israeli prime minister's wife, previously in the spotlight over mistreatment of staff, faces possible prosecution for misuse of state money.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara during the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah games in Ramat Gan, Israel, July 18, 2013. Abir Sultan / EPA

Jerusalem // Benjamin Netanyahu was worried and preoccupied at Sunday’s security cabinet meeting.

“He looked very bad, upset and unfocused,” one participant told Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “He simply wasn’t there.”

If indeed the Israeli prime minister was that troubled, the likely cause was not a security threat to Israel but rather the legal difficulties of his wife Sara.

Earlier that day, it emerged that police had recommended she stand trial on corruption allegations.

According to press reports, she is suspected of improper behaviour and misuse of state funds relating to the prime minister’s residence. A statement by police stopped short of explicitly recommending an indictment to state attorneys but that was its implication and the unanimous conclusion of the media.

Palestinians would think that the suspicions against Sara seem very minor compared to some of the actions of her husband in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the years. But unlike those there is a real chance she could be indicted if Israel’s attorney-general, Avichai Mendelblit, agrees with the police.

One allegation against Mrs Netanyahu is that she used public funds to pay for chefs and ready meals for family and private events. Another is said to involve paying for a caretaker for her elderly father with public money.

There is reportedly a third scandal, but its details are unknown.

A statement by the Netanyahu family said Sara Netanyahu had not committed any offence and that “various claims emerging in the media will turn out to be baseless, along with all the other claims against the Netanyahu family over the years”.

Yossi Cohen, a lawyer for the family, told Israel Radio on Monday that the chef expenses were for hosting foreign heads of state.

“A president comes from an African country or Europe. Do you expect to feed him with falafel?” he said.

Sara Netanyahu’s troubles came days after a scandal known as Bibitours re-emerged for the prime minister, with Israeli state comptroller Yosef Shapira claiming that when Mr Netanyahu was finance minister from 2003 to 2005, he had private organisations and donors sponsor most of his trips abroad and cover travel costs for his wife and children. Mr Shapira criticised Mr Netanyahu for failing to seek the opinion of legal experts on this.

An indictment against Sara Netanyahu combined with the fallout from Bibitours could prove very difficult for her husband, analysts said.

“His demise is still a long way off, but these things have a life of their own and can become very serious problems,’’ said Leslie Susser, former political editor of the Jerusalem Report magazine.

Wadie Abu Nassar, head of the International Centre for Consultations in Haifa, noted that the prime minister had alienated many people in his Likud party, including former education minister Gideon Saar and most recently Moshe Yaalon, who was pushed out of his post as defence minister to make way for Avigdor Lieberman, head of the extremist Yisrael Beiteinu party.

“If there is solid evidence, it may boomerang against him,” Mr Abu Nassar said. “If Sara Netanyahu is convicted, it is his wife, not his brother or a cousin. It would be difficult for him to distance himself.”

But Yossi Alpher, former director of the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies, said he doubted Mr Netanyahu would suffer significant damage.

“I don’t think his public cares particularly on this issue,” he said.

Ms Netanyahu met her husband while working as a flight attendant for El Al airlines and the two were married more than 20 years ago. At times she has been painted by the media as pulling the strings of power and acting as her husband’s gatekeeper, deciding who should be granted access. The couple have two children.

In 1995, Ms Netanyahu earned a master’s degree in psychology and she has worked in recent years as a child psychologist for the Jerusalem municipality. But she is best known for what appears to be a domineering and capricious style at home.

In another blow, a labour court in Jerusalem on Sunday dismissed her attempt to appeal against a February verdict that awarded 170,000 shekels (Dh162,000) to Meni Naftali, a caretaker at the prime minister’s residence, who had sued over mistreatment by Mrs Netanyahu.

In one widely publicised instance, he claimed that the prime minister’s wife called him at 3am to scold him for buying milk in a bag instead of a carton.

Another worker, Guy Eliyahu, has also filed a lawsuit against her for alleged mistreatment. In ruling in favour of Mr Naftali, the judge wrote that “numerous testimonies were presented to the court that point to an atmosphere of harmful work conditions at the residence due to the behaviour of Ms Netanyahu and her attitude towards the workers. These included irrational demands, insults, humiliation and outbursts of rage.”

According to the Times of Israel, the response from the prime minister’s office stated that the picture emerging from the ruling “is far from the reality in the prime minister’s residence.”