An investigation published tonight (Thursday) on the Haaretz newspaper website revealed a series of harsh testimonies about cases of alleged sexual assault by ZAKA chairman Yehuda Meshi Zahav against children, boys, girls and women – which occurred for many years, according to the allegations. As you may recall, it was recently decided to award the Golden Silk Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement for a special contribution to society and the state.
Evidence presented in the investigation shows that for decades, beginning in the 1980s, Golden Silk took advantage of his status, power, money and even the organization he heads – to attack children and boys, girls and women, ostensibly.
According to the investigation, there were many who knew about the attacks attributed to gold silk throughout the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Mea Shearim, Shmuel Hanavi and Sanhedria, and were also among the members of the chastity guards who knew but did not report to law enforcement. According to the victims’ testimonies, Gold Silk even used to brag about his “sexual conquests,” and in some cases allegedly paid money to his victims.
Gold Silk was investigated at the beginning of the previous decade on suspicion of sexual assault, but the woman then refused to file a complaint, and the investigation was closed for lack of evidence. The event was not announced at all, and the name of Gold Silk remained clean. The same ultra-Orthodox woman who refused to complain, Ch, was then in financial distress. According to her testimony, Golden Silk promised her financial aid, and used it to get closer to her, much more than she wanted.
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“He forcibly stripped my clothes,” she told two of her friends and police investigators. She begged him to stop, but he did not stop, forcibly pinning her to the couch and forcing himself on her. “If you talk,” he warned her later, “a ZKA jeep will run over you.”
Another testimony published is that of N., now 41, who was 16 when he met Golden Silk in 1996 when he was 36 in golden silk. “All the people close to him in those years knew I was his escort boy. I became a prostitute in every sense of the word,” he said.
According to N., Golden Silk wanted to have full sex with him, time and time again tried to convince him. But the boy managed to place the border there. “We did everything, but there was no intrusion. He tried several times and I refused.”
N. was not at all attracted to men, and received for the sex “permutations,” and he was not the only one. The evidence shows that this was a regular practice on the part of Golden Silk, who used to transfer money and gifts to men and women with whom he had sexual intercourse and for some of which he “paid” in other ways as well.
N., for example, received part of the “payment” in the form of an occasional trip to Tel Aviv for the purpose of meetings with prostitutes. Other times he was sent for sexual encounters with other women with whom he had golden silk in a relationship. “Occasionally he would take me to apartments in Tel Aviv where we would meet with prostitutes,” he says. “I was with one people while he was with another.”
The meetings between N. and Golden Silk took place on average once a week for four years. “Sometimes more,” says N., “and there were also times when he was a bit gone and then I was obsessed with him. It was completely sickening,” he admits over the years, sharing that there were times when he thought the problem was with him.
Like other victims whose testimony was given in the Haaretz investigation, N. also says that the environment of Golden Silk knew about what was happening. “All the people close to Golden Silk knew I was his escort boy, like any boy who walked around next to him in those years,” he says. In general, he adds, gold silk did not really obscure his sexual pursuits. “Once he bragged that he was courting a woman who worked in a store on Geula Street (in Jerusalem) for a long time until once he came to the store in a suit, pulled out his penis and laid it on the counter.”
Another shocking testimony is that of the young E., now 26, who was 5 years old when he said he was sexually assaulted by gold silk. “He studied with me in the synagogue. He would sit me on his knees and touch my penis,” he said of what happened in 2000.
Golden Silk said in response to the publication: “I received the request from the Haaretz newspaper for the first time this afternoon. The request addressed to me included obscure and anonymous allegations that go back decades. I will make it clear immediately that there is no dawn on things. “Happy for their deaths. I was spit on when I passed on the street. Terrible messages were sent to me.”
“Unfortunately, this is part of the price I pay for the way I chose. Publishing the article is an attempt to ‘eliminate an account’ with me, and unfortunately also to eliminate me. As long as my strength is up to me, I will continue to serve the people of Israel and the State of Israel.