Without alternative work and extortion and witnesses: exposes the corruptions that does not receive the protection of the state

Eli Yerushalmi worked at the Immigration Authority and revealed in 2010 that inspectors took revenge on foreign workers and held double hearings to keep them in detention.

The information was mistakenly sent to his workplace from which he was fired.

These days he is suing the state, which he says did not offer him a proper alternative job.

The State: We will wait for the verdict

Bini Ashkenazi

01/08/2022

Monday, August 01, 2022, 2:05 p.m. Updated: 8:21 p.m.

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Regional Labor Court (Photo: Reuven Castro)

A lack of hands, the power of committees, not telling the truth to the court and a puzzling decision by the labor court judge are part of the story of Eli Yerushalmi, who was recognized by former state auditor Yosef Shapira as a whistleblower.

However, Yerushalmi's sad story seems to make it clear that the systems are unable and unwilling to provide a sufficient protective envelope for whistleblowers.

Yerushalmi was an employee of the Population and Immigration Authority.

He disclosed and reported to his superiors and the state auditor back in 2010 about criminal offenses and acts of corruption and improper behavior that allegedly took place at his workplace, from which he was subsequently fired.

These days he is awaiting a verdict at the Regional Labor Court in Tel Aviv, in the lawsuit he filed against the Population and Immigration Authority and the Civil Service Commission.

This is on the grounds that they did not find him an alternative job as they were obliged to do according to the law, while he was recognized as a whistleblower, Yerushalmi is seeking compensation from the state for his dismissal and for the fact that he has not been found a job to this day.

Moreover, the State Attorney's Office, which represents the Population and Immigration Authority and the Civil Service Commission, claimed at the beginning of the procedure in 2017 before the Labor Court that it was unable to locate all the jobs relevant to the training and rank of a Jerusalemite in the civil service.

"We don't have the tools and resources to list all the jobs that were filled in these and other periods" and that it is "a lot of ants' work that requires the investment of hours of work without any purpose." 

In the summaries submitted by the state a few months ago, the state claimed that the Civil Service Commission tried to find a Yerushalmi a position that matches the Yerushalmi's qualifications and rank.

She also claimed that she does not have "a document in the state's possession but information that must be collected and compiled for the plaintiff, so that he will know if he finds anything relevant to the lawsuit."

However, a freedom of information request submitted by Yerushalmi, which was answered last month, indicates that the Civil Service Commission had at least 291 positions that corresponded to Yerushalmi's rank and ranking in the civil service in the year he finished his work.

Despite this, he was not offered a single position that year.

Amazed by the information received.

Lawyer Eran Golan (photo: official website, -)

Yerushalmi's attorney, Adv. Eran Golan, was amazed by the information received in the freedom of information request compared to the claims made in the labor court. He turned to the district attorney, Liora Havilio, with a request to hold an urgent meeting, and was met with a refusal and a request to wait for the labor court's decision. 

Yerushalmi's request to attach the The answer to the freedom of information request for the procedure and to order the state to list all the positions that were vacant before the state auditor allowed his dismissal was mysteriously rejected by the labor court judge, Michal Naim Divner. She claimed "because there is no reason in the request why the said reference was not made (the freedom of information request) , "b" during the conduct of the procedure as it could have been done. It is not a matter of merely adding evidence but rather a reopening of the evidence phase.

Yerushalmi, for his part, claims that the state is the one that did not provide the information and did not tell the truth before the court during the evidence phase, when it had the list of jobs.

Currently pending before the court is a request for leave to appeal filed by Yerushalmi regarding the judge's decision not to attach as evidence the number of jobs.

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To the full article

Falsification of court order and powers of committees

Yerushalmi reported to the State Comptroller back in 2010 about the falsification of a judicial order by Judge Yael Belcher of the Rishon Lezion Magistrate's Court, which allowed entry to a residence at a different address than the address originally presented to the court.

Also, Yerushalmi revealed to the State Comptroller at the time that some of the Population Authority inspectors carried out an act of revenge against foreign workers who beat one of the authority's inspectors, and some of them held double hearings for foreign citizens so that every time a decision was made regarding them, that decision was hidden in order to keep them in detention.

Yerushalmi turned to the State Comptroller and asked explicitly and for clear reasons that his identity as a whistleblower would not be revealed at his place of work.

However, the auditor Shapira mistakenly sent the letter of response to him at his workplace - which led to his harassment and finally his dismissal.

Yerushalmi's story did not end there.

After he could no longer continue in his position, he turned to the auditor to order the Civil Service Commission to find him an alternative job.

From here, the story started to get complicated.

The Civil Service Commission examined Yerushalmi's employment at five different workplaces for three years, and he was offered work at only two places: the National Fire and Rescue Authority, where the workers' committee thwarted his transfer, contrary to the provisions of the law.

The second job offered to him is the Ministry of Transportation, which has not yet responded if he was accepted for the position.

The state argued in the labor court that Yerushalmi should have announced that he was accepting the position without knowing the details of the salary.

In its written defense, the state mentioned 19 names, which it said were witnesses in one way or another precisely to the problematic conduct of Yerushalmi himself during his work, and that four times it appealed to the State Comptroller to change his decision to recognize Yerushalmi as a whistleblower.

However, none of those witnesses from the defense letter testified, and those who did testify on her behalf admitted that they do not know Yerushalmi and all their knowledge is based on documents provided to them. 

On the other hand, the Civil Service Commission claimed that it tried to find jobs for Yerushalmi and that he was the one who did not reply to the Ministry of Transportation if he wanted to work there.

The state further claimed that Yerushalmi received compensation from the auditor for 36 months of salary for the period he sat in his home before his dismissal and that his request to receive additional compensation is not in line with the provisions of the law.

The state also claimed that Yerushalmi did not cooperate as required of a person looking for work and that this is not a job finding program "as you wish".

In the statement of defense, the state claimed that Yerushalmi "has nothing but to blame himself for telling the truth in the job interviews to which he was summoned regarding the circumstances of the termination of the job."

One way or another, Yerushalmi's story sharpens the work because whistleblowers pay a high price without having the required backup from the systems.  

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The attorney's office stated that "the plaintiff was employed by the Population Authority, and during the period of his employment he was recognized as a whistleblower. In light of the above, and in accordance with the State Comptroller's decision, the State Service Commission acted in order to try and find him a position that matches his qualifications. The State Comptroller even noted in his decision that the Commission "acted deliberately in its attempts To find an alternative workplace for the complainant, within the civil service.'

As part of the proceedings, the state testified the relevant factors to prove its claims.

As you know, there is no obligation to invite every official or person mentioned in court documents.

It is important to emphasize that, according to the law, the plaintiff has the right to invite to testify any person who can help and support his claims, therefore the state cannot be complained about for not inviting this or that person, who could have been invited by the prosecution as well."

State Comptroller Engelman (photo: official website, Haim Twito)

The state comptroller stated that "in the decision of the then state comptroller and ombudsman dated August 3, 2014 regarding Yerushalmi's complaint, the civil service commissioner was asked to inform if an alternative workplace was found for Yerushalmi in the state service. After that decision, Yerushalmi was assigned to a job in the state service, but his placement there was unsuccessful Therefore, additional attempts were made to place him in additional workplaces, but these attempts were also unsuccessful. In 

view of the above, the State Comptroller and Public Grievance Ombudsman at the time determined for Yerushalmi a high compensation amount equal to 36 salaries. Without expressing an opinion as to the correctness or incorrectness of the claim that there were 300 at the time vacancies in the civil service where Mr. Yerushalmi could be placed We note that this claim was not known to the state auditor and the ombudsman at the time of investigating the complaint and was raised for the first time as part of this query. 

With regard to the question of whether the state auditor and the ombudsman intend to examine the matter now, we note that the state auditor's law denies the authority of the state auditor to investigate a complaint pending in court.

Since Mr. Yerushalmi filed a claim regarding the dismissal to the Labor Court, the State Comptroller and the Ombudsman are prevented from being required in this matter now.

The state auditor's office did not send the so-called 'letter of recognition of Yerushalmi as a corruption whistleblower' to his workplace.

However, and in order to establish their accuracy, we note that in 2010, Yerushalmi addressed the State Comptroller and made allegations concerning improper conduct at the Population and Immigration Authority.

Since the address indicated by Mr. Yerushalmi in his application was the offices of the Population Authority, a letter was sent to him on behalf of the State Comptroller's office confirming the receipt of the application.

The spokeswoman for the labor courts said that "This is a labor dispute case under the authority of a judge from 2017 in which a full evidentiary procedure took place, summaries were submitted and the case is awaiting a verdict. In the decision given on July 26, 2022 by Judge Michal Naim Divner it is written that 'I reviewed the request and did not find it a basis that justifies granting it. There is no justification in the request why the aforementioned reference was not made during the conduct of the procedure as it could have been done. This is not a mere addition of evidence but rather a reopening of the evidence phase, since it will be necessary to give the defendant an opportunity to refer to the evidence in the evidence in question. In view of the date of the opening of the procedure and the fact Because he is already waiting for a verdict to be issued - the request is rejected.' On this decision, the plaintiff submitted a request for leave to appeal to the National Court on July 28, 2022, in which a decision has not yet been given."

Attorney Eran Golan, Yerushalmi's attorney, said that "I have never come across a proceeding in which a party who names 19 witnesses in a defense letter, none of them testifies, and witnesses testify under them, none of whom signed any document, and has no knowledge whatsoever of the proceeding.

Making factual allegations that are not true before a judicial tribunal constitutes an ethical offense, and my expectation as a lawyer after it was discovered that the factual argument raised in the document discovery process does not correspond to reality will be a home inspection and responsibility will be taken.

There is no system that is free from mistakes, but the test that I think the attorney's office failed is what to do when one is discovered. 

As for the Regional Court's decision not to allow the evidence, the judicial system should not encourage the concealment of information and the conduct of a judicial proceeding based on a factual basis that is not true, the result of the Regional Court's decision means creating an incentive for litigants to submit false statements in the document discovery procedures, and this is in contrast to the civil system in which A regulation was installed to deal with the hiding of documents and the failure of the judicial process, and I hope that the national court will correct the mistake.

We are disappointed that the state auditor does not request to conduct an inspection regarding the vacancies that were in real time compared to the report made to him by the commission and which formed the basis for the termination of Eli's work in the civil service."

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