Another former employee of the Prime Minister’s Residence has come forward with disturbing allegations about Sara Netanyahu.
The worker claims he was subjected to shouting, humiliation, extraordinary cleaning demands and physical aggression. Among the stranger details, he alleges that he was required to clean floors with individual wipes, preserve tiny amounts of leftover food and follow obsessive instructions involving clothing, luggage and hundreds of pairs of shoes.
He also claims that Sara Netanyahu pushed him, cursed him and treated certain workers, particularly Mizrahi and foreign employees, in a degrading manner. Yair Netanyahu is separately accused of physically removing him from the residence following an argument.
The Prime Minister’s Office has denied the accusations, describing the lawsuit as false and financially motivated. These latest claims have not yet been proven in court.
But this is no longer an isolated story.
For years, former employees have described a similar atmosphere inside the Netanyahu residence: screaming, humiliation, irrational demands, fear and unusually intense control over minor household matters. Some cases ended in settlements; in at least one major case, a labor court found that a former caretaker had been subjected to abusive working conditions.
Not every allegation against Sara Netanyahu has been established. Some lawsuits failed, and the Netanyahu family has repeatedly argued that hostile journalists and disgruntled employees have exaggerated ordinary workplace disputes.
Yet when similar accounts emerge from different workers across several decades, the question can no longer be dismissed as mere gossip.
What exactly is happening inside the prime minister’s home?
The most troubling element is not the alleged obsession with food, cleaning or household objects. Nor should journalists attempt to diagnose Sara Netanyahu from a distance. The real problem is power.
Sara Netanyahu holds no elected office. She is not a minister, civil servant or official adviser. Yet numerous witnesses and former associates have described her as deeply involved in political appointments, personal loyalties and access to the prime minister.
Since the 1990s, she has been portrayed as one of the people with the greatest influence over Benjamin Netanyahu. If that portrayal is accurate, Israel faces an unusual situation: a person operating near the center of national decision-making without any formal responsibility, public mandate or clear system of oversight.
The new allegations also raise uncomfortable political questions.
Netanyahu’s electoral strength depends heavily on Mizrahi and working-class voters who see him as their representative against Israel’s traditional elites. Claims that Mizrahi workers were treated as inferior inside his own residence therefore clash sharply with the political identity surrounding the Netanyahu movement.
Allegations involving foreign or African workers are equally disturbing. They require proof, but they cannot simply be ignored.
There are also questions about Benjamin Netanyahu himself. According to the latest account, the prime minister occasionally attempted to help employees but was unable to change the situation. If true, that presents a bizarre image: Israel’s longest-serving prime minister unable, or unwilling, to impose basic rules within his own official residence.
Sara Netanyahu’s famous recorded remark that the family could leave and “let the country burn” has followed her for years. It may have been nothing more than an angry private comment. Yet it reinforced the perception that the Netanyahu family sometimes sees the country as personally dependent upon them.
That perception makes these stories politically important.
The public does not need endless gossip about baby wipes, leftovers or shoes. It needs answers to basic institutional questions.
Who may give orders to workers at the Prime Minister’s Residence? Who protects them from mistreatment? To whom can they complain? What limits apply to an unelected spouse who may influence political decisions?
Israel does not need to decide whether Sara Netanyahu is pleasant, difficult or misunderstood.
It needs rules governing unelected power.
