Katsav's 'harassment techniques'
New testimonies reveal president's alleged methodical sexual harassment of female employees during his days as transportation minister; 'he would tell me that he fantasizes about me during intimate activities. Six months in I suddenly realized I was trapped,' former employee says
"The writing was on the wall, for years. Journalists knew about it, women cried for help, but they weren't brave enough to come forward and complain to the police. But people talked about it, everybody knew about it," said a former employee of President Moshe Katsav in a testimony that will air for the first time on Wednesday on Uvda (Fact), Israel's highest-rated investigative television program.
The program will air the testimonies of several women, all former Katsav employees. N., one of the key complainants against Katsav, details the methodology employed by Katsav in his pursuit of women: "It started out with a fatherly, concerned interest in you. A targeted courtship. He would ask for my opinion, my thoughts and feelings on matters. He invested endless hours in it. For six months, every day, I was given rare attention.
"It's a pathology of hunting and dominating. At first he showered me with attention, you're the reigning queen of the office. Then he started to tell me 'You're beautiful, I love you, I want to be with you, I can't sleep because of you…' he would tell me that he fantasizes about me during intimate activities. Six months in I suddenly realized I was trapped," said N.
One day N. found herself alone with Katsav in his office. He asked her to touch him sexually, she refused. Several months ago N. underwent a polygraph test and was found credible in her description of his advances.
Katsav: 'What did I do to you?'
N. contacted a journalist, Shalom Yerushalmi, and the two met in a small cafe in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market, where she told him of Katsav's harassment.
Katsav learned of N.'s meeting with Yerushalmi and she was summoned to his office. "He sounded like he was almost offended, accusing. 'Did I hurt you? Did I do anything to you' he asked," remembers N.
According to N. every time she rejected Katsav she found herself shunned from office meetings, and employees suddenly kept their distance from her. But N. couldn't leave, she said, because had been threatened that Katsav would make sure she could not find work elswhere as he would send a negative letter of reference.
"His advisors, drivers, aides, secretaries… everyone knew what was going on. Everyone knew there were hours when his office was 'off limits.' Everyone knew who his current favorite was at the moment, the 'flavor
of the month,'" testifies another female employee.
A close friend of Katsav's said in response: "Of course he slept with women. Maybe there was a pat here and there. But not rape. He is not a rapist. His problem was that he didn't liked helping people. I would tell him 'Moshe, get her a job or something...' but he was a coward. That's why he didn't fix them up with jobs and now they're angry."
Meanwhile, Katsav’s attorneys sent a letter to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz criticizing him for ‘not preventing leaks of the investigation to the press.’
The attorneys claim Mazuz is responsible for the publication on Monday of details about the fresh complaint filed against the president, and will recommend that Katsav not cooperate with investigators.
“If the police want to conduct the investigation in the media, why do they need the president’s testimony?” the attorneys said in the letter. “We regard you (Mazuz) personally responsible for not preventing the leaks. Past experience tells us that there is no reason to believe you will begin to act now (against the leaks). Therefore, we no longer see ourselves obliged not to reveal material from the investigation, all the while protecting the witnesses’ and complainants’’ privacy.
