Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bureau chief resigned over a sexual harassment scandal.

Natan Eshel under a plea agreement signed Sunday resigned from his position and committed to never again working in civil service.

Eshel admitted to unprofessional behavior with a female subordinate. The woman, known only as R, has refused to press charges or testify against Eshel.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Netanyahu in a statement thanked Eshel for “his dedicated and good work over the years as head of the Prime Minister’s Bureau, and commend(ed) him for his important contribution to the successful work of the government.”

Some 16 co-workers testified to the Civil Service Commission that Eshel had an inappropriate relationship with R. He is accused of stalking R, reading her e-mails and taking inappropriate photos of her.

Eshel said in a statement that the plea bargain “lifts the cloud of indecent acts and/or pictures and sexual harassment off of my life once and for all, and puts an end to the devil’s dance around me.”

Bureau director Gil Sheffer was named to replace Eshel.

Read a related Sisterhood blog post here.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount