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Civil servant reprimanded for posts against IDF, Israeli officials

Tax Authority employee wrote several disparaging Facebook posts calling to fire the IDF’s top brass, wishing MK Ayman Odeh would get a 'bullet in the head' and mocking Haifa's 'fat' mayor.

The Disciplinary Court of the State Service has convicted Anat Levy, an employee who worked at the Israel Tax Authority for publishing several inappropriate and hurtful posts on Facebook condemning governmental bodies such as the IDF, members of Knesset and Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav.

 

 

The punishment was a reprimand, withholding of one month's salary and dismissal from a managerial position for at least two years. She will be demoted in her position for at least six months.

 

Levy had called for the dismissal of the chief of staff and the top ranking military personnel and wished for them to “go to hell."

 

 

She shared an image of Knesset Member Ayman Odeh, leader of the Arab Joint List, with bandages on his head and an Optalgin pill, which was captioned “Bullet in the head." 

 

She has also called to “shove the coexistence in Haifa into the fat body of the Mayor Yona Yahav.”

 

There has never been a case of this kind where a civil servant is on disciplinary trial for private Facebook posts. Levy has been working in the public service since 1987 and today works as a head of a central branch in the Tax Authority offices in Haifa.

 

She was convicted in a plea bargain and confessed to the disciplinary offenses attributed to her, failing to fulfill her responsibility as a state worker and behaving inappropriately in a way which could potentially hurt the image and the good name of public service.

 

In a post written in January 2017, she said “Good morning Yona Yahav! After burning our city...after shooting at us on the streets...you can shove the coexistence deep into your throat or to another place in your fat body... It doesn’t work on us... They hate our guts and no one-sided, superficial coexistence will change it.”

 

One month later, she posted a follow-up message: “Is this our military? They only send our children to fight... weapons on shoulders... and they’re hiding and not retaliating…disgrace...the Arabs are happy and the whole world sees it.“

 

 (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

 

In March 2017, she wrote: “A response worth sharing: Disaster. The IDF’s top brass should be fired including the chief of the General Staff. The problem is the citizens who sit at home and don’t come out of their homes to overthrow the pathetic government which should’ve given the IDF new orders a long time ago.

 

“The officers and the Shin Bet can go to hell. Those who suffer are simple soldiers. Mothers, those are your children, wake up and take the streets to demand a change or keep your children at home. A rotten state which sacrifices its citizens, the country and its legacy,” raged Levy in a post.

 

The court rejected Levy’s appeal for a gag order on the affair, stating that “the publication is required due to public interest in order to create an appropriate deterrence among state employees, who write or share inappropriate and hurtful posts on social media, which is something that can seriously damage the good name of the public service.”

 

The defendant’s lawyer said that she was "a positive figure who supports the Israeli government. She is a patriot who brought up two sons who were in combat service in the IDF and are reservists today. The things she is accused of were written during the times of anger, some are legitimate criticisms. She did not intend to hurt the government institutions.”

 

Levy said during a hearing that she had closed her Facebook account , adding: “I feel hurt by the system. I gave my all to my this job. I’ve done my job faithfully. I brought up two sons to love the state—which I love as well. I admit that I made a mistake.”

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 06.25.18, 11:30
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