The Likud party on Sunday accused Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, whom the government is trying to fire, of “ulterior motives” in the probe she opened into Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky over suspicions of rape and witness tampering, after he was appointed temporary head of the Knesset’s Finance Committee.
Milwidsky, who has faced multiple accusations in the past of sexual assault, was summoned for questioning Friday morning by the Lahav 433 major crimes unit of the Israel Police, and was reportedly surprised to be questioned about an alleged rape, rather than just an allegation of witness tampering that he already knew he was being investigated for.
On Saturday, the woman accusing Milwidsky of rape related to Channel 12 her account of what happened, and news came out of a second allegation, as fellow MKs called for Milwidsky’s appointment as temporary head of the Knesset Finance Committee to be scrapped.
“The attorney general, who is in a clear conflict of interest, is acting like a saboteur, trying to prevent her dismissal,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud said in a statement, adding that “the decision to open an investigation into MK Milwidsky, one day after it was announced he would serve as Finance Committee chair, is yet another glaring example.”
According to the Ynet news site, the investigation has been ongoing for some two years, and police decided in recent weeks to move forward with questioning Milwidsky; last week, they received permission from Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Eisman to question the MK, in a timing decision that, according to the police, was made due to the political developments.
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Likud alleged, without evidence, that the investigation into Milwidsky was retaliation for its attempts to remove the attorney general: “Since the government announced its intention to dismiss her, the attorney general has been obstructing the government’s work in every way and initiating reckless investigations against coalition members, one after another,” the party’s statement said.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara attends a meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, April 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“This is a witch hunt, seeking to undermine the people’s democratic choice, with only one goal — harming the government, its members, and its function in every way possible,” it added.
A ministerial committee recommended last week that the cabinet fire Baharav-Miara due to “substantive and ongoing differences of opinion between the government and the attorney general, preventing effective cooperation,” with the cabinet set to vote to fire the attorney general on August 4.
‘I was so crushed by it’: Accuser tells her story
On Saturday, the complainant against Milwidsky, identified only by her first initial Aleph, told Channel 12 that the lawmaker raped her when he was serving as legal adviser to the New Age religious association “Bnei Baruch — Kabbalah La’Am.”
The group’s leader, Michael Laitman, was himself accused of sexually assaulting members of the group, leading to a court case at which Milwidsky’s accuser says that she testified falsely, apparently to protect Laitman, under pressure from the now-lawmaker.
Michael Laitman, founder of the Bnei Baruch – Kaballah Laam, a New Age kabbalah association. (YouTube)
“Hanoch wanted to meet me; he showed up, he started asking me about the community in Moscow, and I told him something or other. Then, he started to pressure me to sleep with him,” Aleph said, recalling the days after she arrived in Israel from her home in Russia to testify in defense of Laitman at a court hearing.
Milwidsky “understood that I wasn’t interested in him,” Aleph said.
“We were having a professional conversation and in the middle of it he said, ‘Come on, let’s fuck, everyone does it,’” she alleged. That time, Aleph managed to extricate herself from the situation.
But Milwidsky insisted on rehearsing Aleph’s testimony over and over again before the hearing, she said.
“It wasn’t clear why all these unnecessary meetings. I already understood what to say, I already knew what I was going to say. Why should I meet with him 20 times? I had no desire to see his face,” she told Channel 12.
After the court hearing, Milwidsky took her to the hotel, and this time, she said, raped her. “I was so crushed by it. It’s simply a trigger for me. I’m angry at myself, I’m just angry, that I went in there at all,” she said.
Aleph gave testimony to the Israel Police in August 2024 in Russia, according to Channel 12, but told police that she was unwilling to return to Israel to testify against Milwidsky in court due to threats against her, allegedly from senior figures in the Bnei Baruch group, that have made her fear for her life.
Initial reports said that Aleph — then totally unidentified — had “disappeared” after her first testimony. It was not immediately clear Sunday, after the Channel 12 report, to what extent she has resurfaced.
Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky in a meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, November 25, 2024. (Noam Moskowitz, Office of the Knesset Spokesperson/ File)
Channel 12 on Saturday also published what it said were quotations from Aleph’s testimony to the police last year about Milwidsky’s alleged witness tampering.
“Milwidsky told me exactly what I should say in court — that is, to lie. I was seriously shocked by this, because my parents taught me different principles, to tell the truth. But there was pressure, from Bnei Baruch, and from him,” she said, according to the news outlet.
“Plus the understanding that Milwidsky himself was going to question me on the witness stand. It was a lot of pressure on me. It was a problem for me — on principle, ethically — to lie to the judge, but it was easier for me because of the fact that there was a translator, and I spoke to him,” Aleph reportedly told police.
Channel 13 reported Saturday that an additional woman has filed a complaint against Milwidsky, alleging that he sexually assaulted her in 2014.
The statute of limitations on that accusation has expired, but police hope that the testimony will still strengthen the main accusation against the lawmaker if it goes to trial, the network said, reporting that the main witness was still incommunicado.
MKs: Milwidsky must not head Finance Committee
Amid the accusations, opposition lawmakers called for Milwidsky’s appointment as temporary head of the Knesset Finance Committee to be withdrawn.
MK Pnina Tamano-Shata of the Blue and White party, chair of the Committee for the Advancement of Women, wrote to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana on Saturday night that “although the presumption of innocence applies to every person, the Knesset must send a clear and uncompromising message when it comes to the struggle against physical, sexual, or psychological violence against women.”
Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women chairwoman MK Pnina Tamano-Shata leads a committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on January 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Anyone facing such an accusation “is unable to hold one of the state’s strongest and most influential positions,” she charged.
MK Merav Ben-Ari, the faction chief for Yesh Atid, also said she reached out to MK Ofir Katz, the coalition whip, to stop Milwidsky’s appointment, saying: “The Finance Committee is responsible for distributing state resources, approving budgets, overseeing pension funds and economic reforms — substantive matters that affect every citizen of the state.
“It is appropriate that the one who heads it should be an unimpeachable figure, who can manage the committee with transparency, integrity, and the full faith of the public,” she said.
Milwidsky’s interrogation on Friday came days after he played a key role in the ouster of MK Yuli Edelstein as head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, amid an impasse over a law to exempt ultra-Orthodox men from mandatory military service.
Milwidsky was considered a candidate to replace Edelstein and was initially seen as Netanyahu’s first choice, but the premier backed down, apparently amid concerns over Milwidsky’s lack of experience, and instead appointed him to lead the Finance Committee.
That role had been vacated by United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni, whose party left the government over the same Haredi draft issue, though on the opposite side.
Before he entered the Knesset on the Likud’s slate in 2022, an anonymous woman alleged that Milwidsky sexually assaulted her in her home eight years before that, in 2014. Milwidsky has denied the accusation. It was unclear if this was the same accusation reported by Channel 13.
Additionally, in September 2024, an anonymous emailer sent several Knesset offices a nude photo supposedly of Milwidsky, paired with online sexual correspondences linked to him.
The MK insisted the photo was fabricated and said the email was part of a defamatory, deceitful campaign against him, and filed a police complaint.
The investigation hit a dead end, the Haaretz daily reported, as the email with the photo was removed from the Knesset’s servers after one of the recipients notified the IT department, which subsequently deleted it.