TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s international media spokesman David Keyes has formally resigned his position three months after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him.
Keyes, who denies the allegations, first took an open-ended leave of absence in mid-September, when The Times of Israel publishedan exposé regarding him, citing 12 women who described a pattern of inappropriate behavior toward themselves and other women, including at least two accounts of what could be considered sexual assault.
Since then, four more women have contacted The Times of Israel to complain about their encounters with Keyes. To date, four of the women who have complained about Keyes’s behavior have been named.
After the publication of the exposé, Keyes said all the allegations “are deeply misleading and many of them are categorically false.”
He later said that he was taking a leave of absence amid the uproar to try to clear his name.
On November 29, the Civil Service Commission formally closed its probes into alleged misbehavior against Keyes, saying no wrongdoing was found on his part that would require further disciplinary action.
The head of the commission’s Department of Discipline, Guy David, said in a letter that most of the complaints against Keyes related to the period before he started working for Netanyahu, and cited a 1963 law that states that disciplinary measures can only be taken against civil servants for deeds committed while they were working for the state.
In a statement on Wednesday, Keyes said he was stepping down to “pursue new opportunities in the private sector.”
Netanyahu, in response, praised his “talent and contribution” in a separate statement, and wished him success.
The Israeli premier himself has long been a suspect in ongoing criminal investigations, but he has so far refused to step down.
Moshe Ya'alon, Israel's former minister of military affairs, said last year that Netanyahu “should have resigned a while ago” as a result of the ongoing criminal investigations against him.
“This is a matter of political culture, obviously there is no smoke without fire,” he said in April 2017.
Source:presstv