MK Ben-Ari. 'Misunderstood'
צילום: גיל יוחנן
MK Ben-Ari sues women's lobby for slander
Statements made by National Union lawmaker against extending maternity leave kick up storm. Now he is suing Israel Women's Network for NIS 250,000 following their response to comments he made on issue, says they 'humiliated' him. Lobby: We will not surrender to attempts to silence voice of working women
After they asked the attorney general and the Knesset Ethics Committee to impose sanctions on Member of Knesset Ben-Ari (National Union) for alleged incitement and discrimination against women, the legislator is striking back with a court case filed in Jerusalem Magistrates' Court in which he is demanding NIS 250,000 (about $67,250) in compensation from the Israel Women's Network following their response to statements he made on the issue of extending maternity leave.
The petition to the court claimed on behalf of Ben-Ari: "The defendants shamed him for actions and characteristics unjustly and unlawfully ascribed to him."
The conflict between MK Ben-Ari and the Israel Women's Network broke following statements Ben-Ari made in Knesset regarding a proposal to extend maternity leave.
"The next time a woman comes to me and a man comes to me, I will prefer his month of reserve duty, which I know how to handle, over the half a year (of maternity leave), during which the office either collapses or I have to find a better replacement. With all the sorrow of parting from a child, either hire a nanny at home or send the child to day-care and return to the place at which you committed to work faithfully. The workplace is something that needs to be respected as well, not disregarded," Ben-Ari said.
IWN asked Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to impose stiff sanctions on MK Ben-Ari following his statements. "In actuality, MK Ben-Ari is calling straight out for all employers in the economy, by giving a personal example, not to employ women during their fertile years and not to employ mothers," said the lobby group.
'An important part of the work force'
In his statement of claim, MK Ben-Ari claimed that his statements regarding the maternity leave bill were distorted and taken out of context. He claimed that he opposed the bill because longer maternity leave will encourage employers to hire men instead of women. He said that the statement release by IWN to the press charged that "MK Ben-Ari must be investigated for incitement to discriminate against women.""Just like that, at the stroke of a pen, the defendants turned the plaintiff into a person calling on employers in the country not to hire women and granting legitimacy to the refusal to employ women in the State of Israel," claimed MK Ben-Ari. He said that though IWN quoted some of his statements made in the Knesset, "the statement omitted the rationale for the plaintiff's opposition to the bill, essentially the entire first section, and not unintentionally."
Ben-Ari's claim addressed the media buzz that the IWN complaint kicked up: "In dozens of television and radio programs, broadcasters/commentators/announcers referred to his distorted statements that were only partially quoted as they appeared in IWN's response. The defendants humiliated him in the eyes of all living creatures, made him a target for hatred, ridicule, and mockery, and this is an injustice to him … They did not act in good faith, but out of malice …They shed his blood and caused him irreversible damage."
In response to the legal claim, head of IWN's legal department Attorney Shirley Shlomiuk-Babai said, "The statements made by the member of Knesset represent out-dated and unenlightened conceptions. Today, the entire Western and advanced world knows that women are an important workforce for the economy and that pregnancy is not a disease.
"Instead of addressing the public criticism against him, this member of Knesset is responding in an aggressive manner. We will not surrender to attempts to silence the voice of working women in the State of Israel! Israel Women's Network will defend in court all women, who are fired and discriminated against every day because of pregnancy, fertility treatments, or simply because they are mothers. This struggle is the struggle of all the working women in the State of Israel."
