Ex-Israel MK questioned over alleged assault of child

Former Knesset member and NGO Monitor board member Einat Wilf has been questioned by police “over accusations that she assaulted a minor”, reported the Times of Israel.

The story had been previously reported in the Israeli media but it was only yesterday that Wilf’s name was permitted for publication in relation to the incident.

The alleged assault “reportedly happened last week when she was an accompanying parent for a first-grade school trip in south Tel Aviv”, stated the Times of Israel.

At some point, she got into an altercation with one of the children, a boy aged 6, and pushed him against a fence, according to the complaint filed by his parents over the weekend.

“Wilf was questioned by police on Monday and then sent home,” the report stated.

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In details reported by the Jerusalem Post, the complaint was filed at a police station in Tel Aviv, with the father of one of the students claiming “that while serving as a chaperone, Wilf intervened in a game between two students, got up and pushed one of the children up to the fence”.

“The complaint has been investigated and police have obtained testimonies from several witnesses, including the school’s educational staff and students at the school,” the Jerusalem Post added.

Wilf, for her part, has claimed that “the parents who filed a complaint with police are just trying to blackmail her for money.”

Wilf was a member of Knesset from 2010-2013, since which time she has focused on various pro-Israel advocacy initiatives.

The activist is also a board member of NGO Monitor, an organisation which attacks local and international human rights organisations that support Palestinian rights.

Wilf’s lawyer Joshua Lieberman claimed yesterday that “distributing falsehoods and false accusations” to the media about his client “is slander and warned that the parents will be held responsible for any costs, aggravation, or damage to reputation caused to his client”.