Netanyahu family under serious accusations: "Left debts of thousands of shekels"
Documents revealed show that as early as Netanyahu's first term, the family demanded coverage for private medical expenses, used aliases, bypassed procedures, and left debts of thousands of shekels to doctors and therapists.
An investigation by the newspaper "Haaretz" by journalist Uri Misgav reveals documents from Benjamin Netanyahu's first term in 1996, showing how the Netanyahu couple treated the "Maccabi" health fund as a private fund, as alleged in the article.
The family received treatment under aliases such as "Amichai Mairovich" and demanded extensive coverage for medical expenses not included in the health basket — from dental treatments for children to small reimbursements of tens of shekels for purchases at "Super-Pharm".
To bend the procedures, according to the article, the family used the Knesset doctor, Dr. Yitzhak Lifshitz, as a front man before the fund's CEO, Shabtai Shavit. The former CEO initially gave in for the sake of discretion, but a year later issued a stop order, after the fund had covered "over 18,000 shekels beyond the legal entitlement" and demanded to end the conduct.
Maccabi's refusal to continue funding the irregularities left private doctors and therapists with debts of thousands of shekels that remained unpaid for years.
"Since July 1997, there has been a prolonged and unreasonable delay in payment... all parties involved are shrugging it off and the debt remains," a therapist wrote to Sara Netanyahu. Another doctor complained: "The payment took two years! I fell on deaf ears." No response was provided by the family.
