On her first day as a private citizen, outgoing Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked will be summoned to testify in a lawsuit related to Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah. Amit Segal reported for Channel 12 News.
The lawsuit was filed by Netanyahu's former attorney David Shimron against former senior Israel Aerospace Industries VP David Arzi for defamation after Arzi claimed that Shimron showed him a document proving that Netanyahu had given his wife control over much the government's policy.
As part of the defense, Arzi has sought to bring a number of well-known figures to testify about the relationship between the Netanyahu couple. Thus, Shaked was summoned to the hearing in a week's time, as someone who was previously the head of Netanyahu's office and later a minister in his government.
Shaked does not intend to testify, and in a letter to the judges in the case stated that she has nothing to add and that she has never spoken publicly about Sarah Netanyahu, so there is no point in testifying.
Shaked's only known comments about Sarah Netanyahu were in a secret recording which was published in Israeli media on the eve of the establishment of the outgoing Bennett-Lapid government. In the recording, she said that Benjamin Nd Sarah Netanyahu are "like dictators, they have an indescribable lust for power."
Shaked has hinted that she may return to politics by joining the Likud party, so she has little incentive to appear in court and giving testimony which antagonizes the Netanyahu family.