Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has been asked to investigate claims that Tourism Minister-nominee Esterina Tartman lied about her academic background.
Attorney Eitan Erez has asked the Attorney General to investigate claims that Yisrael Beiteinu Knesset faction chairperson Esterina Tartman lied about having received a Bachelors and Masters Degree, as claimed in her official biography on the party’s website.
Tartman, who has been nominated by party chairman and Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman to become the next Tourism Minister, repeated the claims in a Knesset TV interview aired earlier in the week. “I come from a clear economic background, a Bachelors Degree in accounting and finance and a Masters Degree in business administration,” she told the interviewer.
It turns out, however, that Tartman merely studied for a Masters Degree, but never completed it, due to a major traffic accident she suffered that kept her bedridden for nine months. In addition, Haaretz reported that officials at Bar Ilan University - where Tartman said she received her undergraduate degree - do not have her listed as having studied for a degree there in the past 30 years. AG Menachem Mazuz is now expected to investigate whether the false claims of academic credentials constitutes a criminal offense.
However, the Hebrew website NFC - the only media source to which Tartman has granted an interview since the story broke - reports that she in fact took Bar Ilan courses for three years, but was not a candidate for a degree. She took the courses in the framework of her work as a senior manager for Bank Yahav, wrote papers, and concluded the studies with excellent grades. "In retrospect," she said today, "it was a mistake not to matriculate."
She then received a Bachelors Degree from Touro College, and went on to study for a Masters - apparently at the Kiryat Ono Academy - until she withdrew. She explained to NFC that she never claimed to have had a Masters, "except during the interview, when in the heat of the moment I said I had the degree instead of saying I had studied for the degree."
She apparently made the same mistake in another conversation four years ago; the recording was played on Army Radio this morning.
Complaining about the tremendous media onslaught under which she has been for the past two days, Tartman said that she can understood why others in her situation might consider suicide.
Attorney Barak Kalev, head of the legal department for the Movement for Quality Government, slammed Tartman, saying, “One who has misled the public about one’s worthiness of an academic degree cannot serve as a public official who should be leading by example.”
Yisrael Beiteinu sources worked to contain the public relations damage, saying Tartman herself never claimed to have a Masters Degree and dismissing the claims in her biography on the party’s website as a simple typing error.
Knesset Members from across the political spectrum quickly began calling on Lieberman to withdraw Tartman’s appointment to the Tourism Ministry.
Lieberman was in Moscow when the story broke but said he would address questions about the scandal on Wednesday after his return. He expressed support for Tartman, however, saying her nomination for the Cabinet post still stands, that she has a great future ahead of her, and that the media had blown up the story beyond its proper proportions.
"Sometimes people say unnecessary things in the heat of the moment, or add things, or try to evade," Lieberman said. "This is not the time to tackle her, to bash her and to abandon her. The opposite; we're not rushing anywhere."
Sources at the Prime Minister’s Bureau noted that every party leader decides which party members will fill its allotted ministerial posts, and Yisrael Beiteinu is no exception. The prime minister is waiting to hear Lieberman's decision on whether to cancel Tartman's appointment before responding.