Additional sexual assault accusation revealed against Shimon Peres

An unnamed former secretary accused Shimon Peres of sexual assault, Israeli news reporter Rina Mazliah revealed to N12 on Saturday.

“He pulled me toward him and put his hand under my shirt,” said the anonymous woman. “I said to him ‘wait wait’ and he pushed me up against the wall. I pushed him and ran away. I have an awful memory of him.”

This accusation follows those made by former MK Colette Avital who alleged last week that Peres had sexually assaulted her in the 80’s.

Avital told Haaretz that Peres pinned her to a door and tried to kiss her while he was prime minister in 1984.

She also said that on another occasion, he invited her to his hotel room for breakfast while they were on a diplomatic mission in Paris and tried to push her onto the bed when she entered the room.

In a radio interview with 103FM, Avital was asked why she had finally revealed what Peres did. 

“I struggled a lot with the decision, but in the end, I was convinced that if I have fought for women against sexual assault all these years, and some women already know, then it would be very bad if I didn’t reveal the truth. That’s what convinced me,” she said.

Last week in Shabbatarbut, she talked about how the “why now?” question doesn’t stem from curiosity but from an accusing and doubtful place. She added that she continued to work with him because she respected him and his work, and she “didn’t mean to insult Peres’ memory and definitely not his family.”

Avital said that she had reported the incident in Paris to Peres‘ advisor Yossi Beilin but when asked about it by Ynet, Beilin said, “I don’t remember such an incident, and I was definitely not told of that kind of behavior by Peres. I was very surprised by this revelation, and I’m not in the position to deny anything because I just don’t remember.”