The evidence in the saga of Tara Kumari Malla, fired for negligence in taking care of the father-in-law of the most powerful man in Israel, Prime Minister Banjamin Netanyahu, points towards the case of a persecuted domestic servant. Malla denies negligence and has a filed a lawsuit in an Israeli court alleging mistreatment at the hands of the Prime Minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu. She is being assisted by Doctors of Civil Rights and Center for Assistance of Foreign Workers.

Malla says she was underpaid and deprived of holidays. In an interview with the Army radio in Israel on Wednesday, she compared the Prime Minister’s house to a jail where she was on a 24-hour duty. She says she did not have room of her own, slept in corner between two houses, and was allowed to leave house only twice during all of last year. All of these allegations point to an inhuman working condition at the Prime Minister’s house.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the Israeli PMO’s office is engaged in a media “offensive” against Malla. The offensive is targeted at portraying Malla as negligent in her duties in taking care of the 96-year-old father of Sara Netanyahu. These allegations are hard to believe. According to Haaretz, the oldest daily in Israel, Malla says that the old man has no complaints against her — neither does she have any against him.

The PMO’s office, however, has repeatedly tried to frame her as mentally unstable, going to the unprecedented extent of using unnamed sources. Unhappy with the PMO’s involvement, the Attorney General of Israel has forbidden using government resources in a personal matter. Nevertheless, in one press statement from the PMO’s office, a person “close” to the family reported that Malla went on an “uncontrollable rage, falling on the ground and banging herself against the floor and furniture.” But the charges lead to a natural question: if Malla was so volatile, why was she entrusted with taking charge of a 96-year-old for more than two years? The real reason she fired, Malla says, is because she would have been entitled to an inhertance in the event of death of the man she was taking care of.

Moreover, this is not the first time Sara Netanyahu has been accused of abuse. According to the Associated Press, during her husband’s first term from 1996-1999, she was accused of firing a nanny for burning a pot of soup. In 2010, another maid, Lillian Peretz, filed a lawsuit against her claiming abuse. Her former secretary in the 1990s, Naomi Igos, has told the media that “Sara Netanyahu is an employer who breaks the law in every possible way.” The pattern of mistreatments suggests it is not the maid but the Prime Minister’s wife who is reckless, rude and emotionally volatile. But time alone will tell whether the Israeli justice system is capable of standing up for the foreign domestic worker. In the mean time, Nepali embassy in Tel Aviv should take the initiative to discover what transpired and inform the Nepali people accordingly.

Published on: 4 September 2011 | The Kathmandu Post