Lapid defends Stern, rejects claims of shredding harassment complaints

• Author: GIL HOFFMAN
• Published date: 11 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Lapid said he spoke to Stern and accepted his denial that he had shred complaints about sexual harassment.

Yesh Atid has zero tolerance for sexual harassment, and if Stern had admitted to shredding documents alleging harassment, the party would have departed from him immediately, Lapid said.

Regarding the accusation against Stern, Lapid said he believed him and not his accuser, saying that Stern had handled sexual-harassment complaints with sensitivity throughout his career and that the quotes by the accuser attributed to Stern could not be correct.

"They falsely accused him for no reason," Lapid was quoted by KAN News as saying in a closed conversation.

On Monday night, Channel 13 interviewed a woman who said she had left the IDF four months early because Stern forced her to keep silent about her sexual-harassment accusations against her officer.

"I was shocked to see Stern say he didn't silence [accusations of] harassment," she said. "He is a liar."

In response, Stern's office said he was aware of the incident and did take action to punish the officer, including shortening his service and preventing his promotion.

On Sunday night, the same channel aired a video of a female soldier complaining that Stern had prohibited her from following through with a sexual-harassment complaint.

"I was a soldier in Bahad 1 [the IDF's officer school] between '95 to '97," the soldier, who was identified as G., said in the video in an electronically altered voice. "One of the NCOs tried to come on to me and sexually harass me. We were in the room, me, MK Elazar Stern, my personal commander and the NCO who tried to harass me. And [Stern said] in these words, 'If you talk about what went on in this room, if you mention what went on in this room or what the NCO tried to do, your days in the army will be dark and bitter. You will be the worst off in the entire world. You will no longer stay in the army.'"

Lapid called on the IDF to probe the allegations immediately to enable Stern to defend his name.

"There are no such things in the world," Stern said in response to Channel 13's query. "There is not one case that I know of, and I am sure that there may be some now that are made up. If you say that I summoned them into the room, both the harasser and him, then they did address the issue. Again, it could be that the incident was not handled well."

Stern said he did not believe he had actually said those words to the soldier.

"The fact of the matter is that the incident was...