State to review actions of Netanyahu aide Keyes on harassment accusations
US Ambassador Ron Dermer's failure to pass on allegations on Keyes to authorities will also be investigated.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBUpdated: SEPTEMBER 18, 2018 04:24David Keyes (L) and US Ambassador Ron Dermer (R)(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Civil Service Commission (CSC) announced on Monday that it would review whether there are Israel-based allegations against David Keyes for sexual harassment for the period in which he has worked as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s English-language spokesman.Keyes took a leave of absence this week after some dozen sexual harassment allegations surfaced against him. However, the CSC also said that from a review of allegations published in the media to date, none of the incidents cited occurred during Keyes’s service as a public employee.Accordingly, the CSC said that US authorities might investigate him for sexual harassment against American citizens while he lived in the US, but it was doubtful whether it could take any action on those allegations.In addition, the CSC said that it would review US Ambassador Ron Dermer’s failure to pass on allegations to the relevant authorities which he was told about Keyes’s conduct back when the spokesman was hired.Overall, the CSC said that it did not seem that Dermer had violated any major obligations as the information that was passed on to him lacked specificity.Further, it noted that the information provided to Dermer only involved Keyes’s conduct prior to his becoming a public servant.The CSC’s statement was issued as a growing number of opposition MKs have called for stronger action to be taken against Keyes and for Dermer to be recalled.In an interview Monday with Jacob Kornbluh of the website Jewish Insider, Julia Salazar, the first public accuser of Keyes, said she hopes he faces consequences for his actions.“I am hopeful – because other women spoke out immediately – that there will be some kind of accountability,” Salazar said.
