Shimon Peres, then president of Israel, at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East, in Jordan, May 17, 2009. Photo: Nader Daoud/World Economic Forum

i24 News – Colette Avital, a former Labor parliamentarian and Israeli consul-general in New York, alleged that former Israeli president Shimon Peres sexually assaulted her twice in the 1980s, Haaretz reported on Thursday.

In an interview with Haaretz newspaper, Avital testified that in 1984, when Peres was serving as prime minister, Avital was summoned to his office to discuss potential jobs that she could hold in his administration.

As she stood up to leave following Peres’ refusal of her request for a prominent position, Avital told Haaretz, “Peres pinned me to the door and tried to kiss me,” before she pushed him off.

“My legs shook when I left, it repulsed me.”

Avital also recalled being invited to Peres’ Paris hotel several years earlier, when the then-opposition leader was visiting the city where she was stationed as an Israeli diplomat.

She alleged that upon arrival at Peres’ hotel room — she was told the meeting would take place in his room due to “security reasons” — she discovered Peres waiting for her in his “pajamas.”

Peres allegedly pushed her towards the bed before Avital resisted and left the room disturbed. “It took a few seconds,” she remembered, explaining that she told Peres’ aide Yossi Beilin that she would not be left alone with him the next time he returned to Paris.

Avital added that Beilin was not shocked when she told him.

There has been no response from the Peres family nor confirmation of the allegations.

Peres is noted for holding office in all of Israel’s public senior positions, as well as being the longest-serving member of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.