State not actively probing Keyes allegations

While the Civil Service Commission has not closed its review of the sexual harassment allegations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s English-language spokesman David Keyes, it is also not actively probing the charges.

Commission spokesman Aryeh Greenblatt dismissed reports that there has been a change in the status of the review since Monday, when his office opened the investigation.

However, he confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that not only is the office not reviewing allegations of incidents before Keyes was a public servant, but that the one new allegation that has come up since his being in public service did not meet the standard for further probing – and that his office is not taking affirmative action to seek out or interview past female employees who worked with Keyes.

Rather, Greenblatt said that his office’s jurisdiction is very limited and prevents it from conducting a more active investigation.

Asked if his office could set special conditions which Keyes would need to comply with in order to return to work in light of all the prior complaints, Greenblatt again contended that his office’s jurisdiction did not relate to prior complaints.

Keyes took a leave of absence last week after about a dozen sexual harassment allegations surfaced against him.

Already on Monday, the commission had said that US authorities might investigate him for sexual harassment against American citizens while he lived in the US, but it was doubtful whether it could take any action on those allegations.

In addition, the commission said on Monday that it would review US Ambassador Ron Dermer’s failure to pass on to the relevant authorities allegations which he was told about Keyes’s conduct back when the spokesman was hired.

Overall, the commission said it did not seem that Dermer had violated any major obligations, since the information that he received lacked specificity. Furthermore, it noted that the information provided to Dermer only involved Keyes’s conduct prior to his becoming a public servant.

The commission’s statement on Monday was issued as a growing number of opposition MKs have called for stronger action to be taken against Keyes and for Dermer to be recalled.