Netanyahu Admits His Aide Bullied Israeli Family [of missing son]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted Friday comments made by a senior aide to the family of an Israeli of Ethiopian descent who has been missing in Gaza for the past 10 months and said the official spoke with the family and apologized for comments the prime minister said were inappropriate.
The official, Lior Lotan, who serves as Netanyahu’s coordinator for hostages and missing persons, met with the family of Avera Mengistu last Wednesday, and threatened them not to criticize the way the government is handling the affair, which was only cleared for publication Thursday morning, Channel 10 News reported.
Netanyahu slammed the comments, saying they “should not have been said” and said he had invited the Mengistu to meet with him. “Lior [Lotan] is working day and night to bring back our missing soldiers and citizens,” the prime minister said in reference to Mengistu, an Israeli Arab presumed missing and the body of at least one soldier that remained in the costal enclave after last summer’s Operation Protective Edge ended.
Lotan said he called the family to apologize for the “content and tone of some of the things I said during what was a long conversation.” According to a statement released by the prime minister on his behalf, Lotan said that he had formed a “positive relationship” with the family over recent months and vowed to continue to work with family in coming months to “see Avera return home.”
After a gag order was lifted on Thursday, it was revealed that Mengistu, a 28-year-old of Ethiopian descent, had climbed over the security fence into the Strip at an Ashkelon beach last September. He was reportedly detained and questioned by Hamas last year, and then released. Another man also missing in Gaza, an Israeli Bedouin from the Negev who crossed at the Erez crossing in April, was apparently taken into Hamas custody and is still being held.
During the meeting reported by Channel 10 and a family representative, Netanyahu reportedly spoke with the family on the phone, with the former asking the prime minister why he was ‘ignoring’ the issue of their missing relative, despite the fact that many letters had been sent to him regarding the missing Israeli over the past eight months. According to the report, Netanyahu replied that he was involved in every detail of the case, and said that advertising the case may hamper the negotiations over Mengistu’s release. Netanyahu called on the family not to lose hope, and the representative thanked the prime minister.
However, during the meeting, Lotan warned Mengistu’s family not to record the conversation. “We… I don’t like this thing, my meetings aren’t written down. I, Yalo [Mengistu’s brother], I…don’t interrupt me please, I am older than you, let me finish and let there be a pleasant atmosphere here. If you are going to take notes…decide what you want – to work together or show off and make mischief and when you decide, I’ll accept anything with respect.”
Responding to the family’s claims against Netanyahu that he did not respond to their letters, Lotan said: “You have two possibilities: one is to point a finger at Hamas and say: ‘You are holding Avera, you are responsible for his fate, give him back to us and we want to know he is alive.’ That is one possibility. You have another possibility, to point a finger at Jerusalem instead of Hamas and say: ‘You are no good, you let him cross over, you didn’t answer our letters.’ You choose. I have an opinion on this – what will help Israel, what will help Avera and what will help Avera and what will help Hamas. But you choose and you will be responsible for the outcome.”
forward.com
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