A lawyer for Broshi denied the incident took place and complained that an alleged incident from 15 years ago was reported.
By GIL HOFFMANUpdated: JULY 30, 2018 01:17Eitan Broshi(photo credit: ALON GILBOA)
Zionist Union leader Avi Gabbay suspended MK Eitan Broshi from the party and urged him to quit the Knesset Sunday after a woman wrote him that Broshi sexually assaulted her in an elevator 15 years ago.Channel 10 broke the story of the alleged incident at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College when Broshi was mayor of the Emek Jezreel Regional Council.“He didn’t let me leave the elevator, touched my intimate parts, and then asked me why I am not going with the flow,” Channel 10 quoted the woman. “By the skin of my teeth, after resisting him a number of times, I managed to leave the elevator and flee to my room, while hoping he wasn’t going to follow me.”The woman complained to her superior the following day, Channel 10 reported.Broshi’s lawyer Ilan Bombach denied the incident took place, and complained that an alleged incident from 15 years ago was being reported. He said that Broshi fought in the IDF’s Golani unit and was now prepared for the fight of his life against an anonymous, made-up complaint.Broshi told Channel 2 that he was innocent and has no intention of quitting.But Gabbay did not accept the denial. “Broshi must take responsibility for his shameful behavior, because sex offenders have no place in the Knesset,” said Gabbay.Broshi’s pat on the behind of his colleague, MK Ayelet Nahmias- Verbin – when the Zionist Union faction visited Kibbutz Be’eri in the Gaza Strip periphery three weeks ago – caused a rift within the party.Those who witnessed the incident said Nahmias-Verbin had been in his way, so Broshi, 68, gave her a friendly pat. No one who saw the incident said they thought he had any sexual intentions. But party member Amiram Levine told her that she should have slapped him, because he was disrespectful.Nahmias-Verbin wrote on Facebook that she accepted Broshi’s apology but it did not change the fact that he had touched her in an improper and humiliating manner in front of a large group of people.
A spokeswoman for Nahmias- Verbin said her office was looking into the alleged new incident before responding. MK Shelly Yacimovich called Broshi a “sex criminal” and said there was “no place for him in the Knesset or public life.”If Broshi quits the Knesset, he would be replaced by anti-corruption activist Eldad Yaniv, who organized rallies calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation every Saturday night for more than a year.Yaniv is the next name on the Zionist Union list after former MK Robert Tiviaev, who will replace MK Isaac Herzog when the resignation letter he submitted Sunday takes effect Tuesday, and former MK Moshe Mizrachi, who will replace MK Zoheir Bahloul when he quits the Knesset in October.Bahloul announced Saturday that he would resign his seat to protest the Jewish Nation- State Law. He expressed frustration with Gabbay’s reaction to his announcement. Bahloul told Army Radio Sunday that Gabbay had responded weakly, because he was “praying for him to leave.”