Veteran Israeli Diplomat Claims Shimon Peres Assaulted Her Twice

Former ambassador Colette Avital, now 81, has finally revealed that former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres assaulted her twice, lending credence to decades-long rumors that Peres had wanted to have sex with her, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

Photo Insert: Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres

In an interview with Haaretz's Gidi Weitz, Avital alleged that the former president tried to initiate unwanted sexual contact with her on two separate occasions. She recalled being invited to dine in Peres’ Paris hotel in the early 1980s, when the then-opposition leader was visiting the city where she was stationed as part of the Israeli diplomatic mission.

When Avital arrived she was told the meeting would take place in his room due to "security reasons” and, upon entering, she discovered that Peres was waiting for her in his “pajamas.”

He pushed her towards the bed, she resisted and left the room agitated. "It took a few seconds,” she recalled, stating that she then told Peres aide Yossi Beilin that the next time his boss came to Paris "I will not be left alone with him.”

In 1984, after three years in Paris, Avital returned to Israel following Shimon Peres and Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir’s deal to form a unity government in rotation. She pushed for a position in the new administration but was told that her gender would prove a barrier to advancement.

During one meeting, after Peres had declined her request for a prominent position, the new prime minister "pinned me to the door and tried to kiss me,” she recalled. "My legs shook when I left, it repulsed me."

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