Foreign caregiver fired from prime minister's residence

Tara Kumari, a Nepalese foreign worker who was hired by the family of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to care for his wife Sara's father, 96-year-old Shmuel Ben-Artzi, was fired Wednesday on accusations of negligence and illicitly withdrawing money from Ben-Artzi's bank account. The Netanyahus have hired a media adviser to avoid a potential public relations crisis.

The Prime Minister's Office launched a media assault on Wednesday, publishing seven statements on the matter. They released printouts of their bank statements, allegedly showing the sums withdrawn by Kumari – several thousand shekels in one case in 2010 and another NIS 10,000 ($2,800) in another two cases this year. Kumari said in response that she withdrew the funds at Ben-Artzi's request. Kumari also claimed earlier this week that she was bruised during a confrontation with Sara Netanyahu. One of the seven published statements released by the Netanyahus featured testimony by the security officer at the prime minister's residence who witnessed the confrontation in question.

"I heard shouts of 'security, security,'" the officer said. "The guard positioned nearby got there in seconds and saw Mr. Ben-Artzi sitting on his chair, and his caregiver lying on the floor banging herself against the tiles and the furniture. The prime minister's wife was standing a meter or a meter and a half away from her. The guard moved the prime minister's wife to another room and noticed that the caregiver's finger was injured."

Another statement said Kumari had left the house on Wednesday to give a television interview, while "leaving Ben-Artzi alone." An hour later, when the elderly Ben-Artzi tried to walk around without assistance, he lost his balance and bumped into a chair.

"I saw a dry wound on his back, caused by the caregiver's negligence," said Dr. Tzi Herman Berkovich, the Netanyahus' family doctor.

"Life at the prime minister's residence is like living in a prison," Kumari told Army Radio. "Even when I ask for a vacation, they don't give it to me." She added that Sara Netanyahu would call her "trash."

According to Kumari, the confrontation in question began when she did not receive her July paycheck. "I asked Sara for the paycheck. She ran toward me and I was very scared. I moved backward and fell over the table, breaking my finger," she said.

"I don't understand all the fuss," Professor Eliezer Rachmilewitz, the head of Ben-Artzi's medical team, said Wednesday. "I know of at least three cases in which the caregiver's behavior led the Netanyahus to determine that she needed to be replaced. I think that any other family would have done exactly the same thing in their place." Rachmilewitz added that Sara Netanyahu is a "dedicated daughter."

The Netanyahu family hired the services of media advisor Ofer Lefler on Wednesday, after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein advised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to utilize government spokesmen to publicly discuss the affair.

Lefler, who will now serve as the family's media spokesman, served in the past in the IDF Spokesperson's Unit and as a media advisor to former Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter and Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau.

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