Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, former ZAKA head, attempts suicide
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SUICIDE NOTE - "I am sorry. My love always,
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Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, accused sex offender and former ZAKA head, attempted to commit suicide Thursday morning.Medical
reports from Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem indicate that he
is currently in critical condition, but doctors have managed to
stabilize him.
Shaare Zedek head Ofer Merin said that the outcome of the situation will only be understood within the next day, and only then we "can ask what damage was caused and to what extent."His son reportedly called for emergency services after he found his father at home where he had hung himself.
Medics evacuated him to the hospital after performing life-saving treatments at the scene.Police found a suicide note in his house. Meshi-Zahav's sons have been starkly divided about it, with one of them saying it is written in his father's handwriting, and another saying it isn't. His sons are also claiming that the letter is actually forged. Meshi-Zahav's lawyer said that he is planning on suing for the "severe act," N12 reported. A neighbor told Channel 12 that Meshi-Zahav looked forlorn on Wednesday and that although he had met him in synagogue on Saturday, weeks after police interrogations, he would not leave the house.
Israeli
police officers and paramedics are seen outside the house of the former
Chairman Israel's Zaka rescue unit, Yehuda Meshi Zahav,in Givaat Zeev
Meshi-Zahav, 59, had been accused of sexually assaulting women and children over a period of decades from his position of power, using tactics of fear and intimidation to silence his victims.
In March, a police investigation was officially launched, after an initial report opened a floodgate of abusive accusations against him, from men, women, and teenage boys and girls of all ages.ZAKA Special Units Director Haim Otmezgin claimed Thursday morning that many of the allegations against Meshi-Zahav came from sources who had tried to blackmail him. "There needed to be a trial; people didn't have to base things on rumors," Otmezgin said, adding that he himself had witnessed threats that the former ZAKA head had received: "If you don't agree to let us fundraise for the organization, we will bury you and destroy your family."The man who threatened Meshi-Zahav, according to Otmezgin, was attempting to fundraise for ZAKA, but pocket some of the money himself. Meshi-Zahav apparently knew of the scheme, and was threatened for it. "Whoever knows Meshi-Zahav knows that he could never hurt a soul," he insisted, "I've known him for 25 years."
Channel 12 was preparing an in-depth investigative article for the Thursday night news about the sexual assault allegations facing Meshi-Zahav when the news broke of his attempted suicide, telling The Jerusalem Post that it has yet to make a decision as to whether or not it will run the program as planned.Rabbi Yuval Sherlow, head of the Ethics Center at the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization, called on Channel 12 to cancel the program in light of today's developments."Investigations about injustices are an essential action designed to increase the moral path of society," he said. "But the broadcasting of Uvda [Fact] tonight, while the person the interrogation is about is fighting for his life, would be an immoral and insensitive step, and therefore should not be broadcast."Following the investigation, Meshi-Zahav stepped down as head of the organization he had founded in 1989 and forfeited the Israel Prize he was set to receive this year.Two months ago, in January, he lost his parents to the coronavirus, just a month after having lost his brother to the same disease.
He lost his father, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Meshi-Zahav, while sitting shiva (the weeklong mourning period) for his mother Sara Zisl Meshi-Zahav, who had passed away only three days prior – all this within 30 days of the passing of his brother, Moshe.
ZAKA founder, an alleged serial rapist, rushed to hospital after suicide attempt
Yehuda Meshi-Zahav tries to hang himself less than 2 months after bombshell reports of allegations against him
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