The National Labor Court
Given on August 30,2026
| Anonymous | The Appellant in the Labor Appeal 38468-04-25 | |
| – | and the Respondent in Labor Appeal 42874-04-25 | |
| Anonymous |
The Appellant in Labor Appeal 42874-04-25 and the Respondent in Labor Appeal 38468-0425 |
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| Before: Judge Roy Poliak, Judge Hani Ofek Gendler, Judge Dori Spivak
Public Representative (Employees) Mr. Shmuel Weissman, Public Representative (Employers) Ms. Naomi Sandhaus |
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Counsel for the appellant – Adv. Guy Planter
Counsel for the Respondent – Adv. Roni Aloni Sadovnik
Judgment
(Text permitted for publication in accordance with the decision of August 30,2026)
Judge Dori Spivak:
- We have before us two appeals against the judgment of the Tel Aviv Regional Court (Judge Ofira Dagan-Tuchmacher and the public's representative, Mr. Elihai Eligon; Labor Dispute 25972-02-22) which received a claim for compensation under thePrevention of Sexual Harassment Law, 5758-1998 (hereinafter - the Prevention of Sexual Harassment Law or the Law), filed by the Respondent (hereinafter - Anonymous) against the Appellant (hereinafter - the Manager).
In the judgment, it was determined that the manager must compensate a certain person in the sum of ILS 50,000 for sexual harassment against her - it should be noted that a person's claim was damaged in the amount of ILS 2,400,000 "together with an amount to be determined for the damage caused to the plaintiff as a result of severe mental injury" - and to compensate her for harassing her following the filing of her complaint of sexual harassment, in the sum of an additional ILS 50,000.
The Factual Background
- The manager was one of the founders of an Israeli startup company that dealt with the cyber field (hereinafter: the company). The company was established about two years prior to the events at the center of this process, which took place in the first half of 2021. Even before those events, the company was acquired by an American company, and during the period relevant to the proceeding before us, it employed about 45 employees, about 30 of them in Israel. To complete the picture, we note that the company was closed during 2022, and all of its employees were fired.
- During the relevant period, the manager, who was one of the founders of the company, served as the manager of the company's development center in Israel. A person began working at the company on February 14,2021 as a human resources manager, directly subordinate to the manager. At that time, the company was growing massively, so it was necessary, immediately after a certain woman's job began, to work closely between the two, in order to make the searches for the various vacancies more precise. Indeed, there is no dispute that from the beginning of their joint work, the two worked closely, including holding long work meetings, and required long work conversations, both by telephone and by text messages.
- On April 1,2021, only about a month and a half after she began her job, the manager informed her predecessor and the person who helped recruit her to the position, saying, "It is with great regret that I inform you that it is not going well with [so-and-so]. It is really not good. It has been many weeks, more or less since the first day. I kept it in my stomach because I hoped I would be able to overcome it and then I wouldn't have to suck (either) you." The next day, on Thursday, April 2,2021, the manager emailed the company's representative in the United States (hereinafter - the representative) in which he detailed difficulties in the functioning of a certain woman, and noted that in his opinion it would be appropriate to fire her. He wrote, among other things:
"… we should make a decision together, but I'm at a point where we need to let her go. I won't do any step until we sync but at least I wanted to update you of the situation before we leave for the weekend…".