Israeli Police said Sunday that they would consider whether a criminal investigation should be launched after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced against the co-founder and chairman of the emergency response group ZAKA.
According to the allegations, some dating back decades, an Israeli Prize spokesman spoke of sexual assault, rape and other abuses.
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Yehuda meshi zahav
(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
The head of the Lahav 433 Serious Crimes Unit, Deputy Commissioner Yigal Ben-Shalom, said there would also be a review of an earlier allegation of sexual harassment made against Meshi-Zahav in 2010, in a previous study close after the complaint has been dismissed.
No complaints have been filed by the police against the ZAKA chief despite widespread new allegations made on social media and reported in the media.
According to the Haaretz newspaper, Meshi-Zahav’s alleged crimes were a public experience in the Haredi community, especially in Jerusalem’s ultra-rectangular neighborhoods.
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ZAKA co-founder and chairman of Yehuda Meshi-Zahav
(Photo: Yogev Atias)
A former member of the Haredi community told Ynet on Sunday that Meshi-Zahav approached her on the street and invited her to visit ZAKA offices.
“I want to get to know you as well as I know your mother,” he told her.
“My mother was in her 20s with two small children suffering from postnatal depression,” said the woman.
“Yehuda went behind my father’s back and took my mother into her sex slave. He abused her for months before my father got out and they separated,” she said.
“When I saw that he was close to receiving the Israel Prize I felt sick,” she told Ynet. “How long can people continue to see him as a kind of saint?”
“Since the story was published Thursday, I can’t stop shaking. I’m glad the truth is finally coming to light. Thousands of men, women and children have been attacked by this maniac,” she said. .
After posting her story on Facebook, the woman was challenged by more people who said they were attacked by Meshi-Zahav.
“Dozens have spoken to me, including people who worked with him at ZAKA and were annoyed by him,” she said.
“I will tell them all to lodge a complaint with the police, but they all say that they cannot, but hope that they will see it against charges. It is unbelievable that such a thing is allowed. man walked around freely for so many years, “she said.
The allegations against Meshi-Zahav date back to the 1980s and tell of a man who regularly exploited the status, power, money and even the organization he makes. to sexually assault women and children.
He was investigated in the early 2010s on suspicion of sexual assault, but the investigation was closed due to a lack of evidence when his prosecutor refused to file a formal complaint.
The woman who accused Meshi-Zahav at the time said he promised her financial support to get close to her and then raped her when the two were alone.
“He took off my clothes with force,” said the woman, adding that she had begged him to stop as he was forcing her on herself.
“He said: ‘If you speak, a ZAKA jeep will run over you’.”
Another accused victim is a 41-year-old man who said he was sexually assaulted by Meshi-Zahav when he was 16 and Meshi-Zahav 36.
“Everyone close to him in those years knew that I was his protective boy. I became a prostitute in every sense of the word,” the man said.
He said he received special “gifts” from Meshi-Zahav for his silence, such as trips to Tel Aviv to meet prostitutes.
Another accused man is a 26-year-old man who is said to have been assaulted by Meshi-Zahav when he was just five years old.
“He taught me in the synagogue.” He would sit on my lap and rub my genes, “the man told Haaretz in his testimony.
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Illustrative
(Photo: Shutterstock)
According to Haaretz, there are likely to be many more Meshi-Zahav victims who have not yet come forward.
Meshi-Zahav has denied all allegations against him.
“I received a call from the Haaretz newspaper for the first time on Thursday afternoon. The call contained vague and anonymous allegations that go back decades. I will immediately make it clear that they are only false , “he said.
“Ever since it came out that I had won the Israel Prize, I have been the focus of a number of telephone threats,” he said.
“As long as my strength allows, I will continue to serve the people of Israel and the State of Israel as I have done all my life.”