Davidi Perl, head of Etzion Bloc Council, says large amount of hush money he paid to his accuser is not admission of guilt
Gush Etzion Regional Council head Davidi Perl
A prominent settler leader faced
calls for his resignation Sunday after media reports revealed he agreed
to pay compensation to a woman in return for her dropping complaints of
sexual assault against him.
Davidi
Perl, head of the Etzion Regional Council, has protested his innocence
and said he paid the woman hush money solely to protect his family and
prevent the accusations from being made public.
Channel 10 television reported last week that
Perl agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of shekels to a 20-year-old
Jerusalem woman who made a complaint against him with the Takana Forum,
which specializes in dealing discreetly with sexual abuse cases within
the Modern Orthodox community. In return, the woman withdrew her
complaint and Perl agreed to not run for council in any future
elections.
Takana, which includes prominent Modern
Orthodox rabbis and officials, tried unsuccessfully for months to
persuade Perl to attend a hearing. Finally, one of the rabbis hired an
attorney to represent the woman and two months ago managed to secure
Perl’s consent for a negotiated settlement. In return for the payment —
reported by the Modern Orthodox Srugim website to be NIS 200,000
($53,000) — the accuser would retract her complaint and Perl would not
run in future elections.
Perl, who had previously declined to comment
on the matter, on Friday sent a letter to other members of the council
in which he insisted that the money he paid was not an admission of
guilt.
“The things that have been published in
various articles have no basis other than that I paid money to prevent
publication of slander, which was made clear to me would be published if
I didn’t pay,” he wrote.
“Don’t see my willingness to pay as a form of
assent,” Perl continued. “Sometimes a person gives up the fight even if
he is right, and so I did it out of a desire to protect my family.”
Details of the letter were first published by
the national-religious aligned Kippa website and then picked up by other
Hebrew media outlets.
Kulanu parliament member Rachel Azaria
MK Rachel Azaria, an Orthodox member of the
centrist Kulanu party, urged the national religious movement and the
Yesha umbrella council of settlers to force Perl out of office
immediately.
In a Facebook post Sunday, Azaria wrote: “This
is the time to demand that Davidi Perl resign. I ask, where is the
Yesha Council? Where is the Torah-orientated [Orthodox] leadership? Why
are your voices not heard? What are we teaching our daughters and sons?”
Yuval Cherlow, a leading moderate Religious
Zionist rabbi, and one of the initial founders of Takana, told Israel
Radio that if the reports that Perl paid his accuser to keep quiet are
true, then he cannot continue to lead the council. Cherlow stressed that
he is not personally familiar with the details of the case, but noted
that he would approach other members of the forum and urge them to give
the woman full support.
According to Channel 10, the case began a year
ago when the woman lodged a complaint with the Takana Forum. The forum
questioned the woman in detail and reached the conclusion that her
accusations were valid. Takana consulted with Attorney General Avichai
Mandelblit, who advised the forum to deal with the matter as best it
could given that the alleged victim refused to file a police complaint
out of fear of making her identity public.
The media exposure has put the Etzion Bloc
community in a quandary, Channel 10 said, because so far the Takana
Forum has maintained a policy of strict silence on any cases it deals
with, refusing to even confirm if there is a case against Perl.
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