The victim who accused Milvitsky of rape will not be called to testify in the slander case.

The decision was made in a civil lawsuit in which MK Hanoch Milvitsky defended his teacher, Kabbalah for the People leader Michael Laitman, who was also accused of rape by the victim.

Milvitsky confirmed that he had been in constant contact with her and described himself as her personal driver during her stay in Israel, but he denied the rape and denied allegations of a sex tape of him.

The judge rejected the first attempt to call a Russian citizen, known as A’, to testify in Israel, who claims that MK Hanoch Milvitsky raped her. A’'s initial testimony was given in the summer of 2024 in her country to investigators from the Lahav 433 unit of the Israel Police, and became the reason for the investigation against Milvitsky.

In recent weeks, the media has reported that the likelihood of the Likud MK being charged is extremely low, as the victim does not want to come to Israel and help the police with the investigation.

In July, after the investigation was made public, a request was filed to call A’ to testify in a civil case initiated by the Bnei Baruch – Kabbalah for the People association, for which Milvitsky worked as a legal adviser before his election to the Knesset.

This is one of a number of libel suits filed by the association against journalists, activists and former students of Kabbalah for the People who reveal information about what is happening in the movement and claim that it is a sect that enslaves its members.

Questioning A’ in a civil case could strengthen the criminal case against Milvitsky, or at least reveal to the public her full version of events. However, the judge hearing the case, Dror Arad-Yelon of the Lod District Court, rejected the request on procedural grounds.

A’ is a former student of Kabbalah for the People, the religious sect in which Milvitsky grew up, led by the spiritual guru Michael Laitman.

According to A’, during a previous visit to Israel, Laitman met with her alone and raped her. The rape allegations surfaced in one of the lawsuits initiated by the association.

However, A’, who at the time still admired Laitman, agreed to return to Israel to testify that nothing happened. On suspicion, she was paid to give false testimony. In 2022, in an interview with the TV channel “News 12”, A’ renounced her previous testimony and stated that Laitman did indeed rape her.

In the same interview, she said Milvitsky pressured her to lie and clear Laitman’s name, and she complied. In addition to Milvitsky, Kabbalah for the People activist Eli Vinokur and attorney Zvi Gelman, who heads the association’s libel firm, were questioned for allegedly participating in the coaching that led to the false testimony.

The situation in which she was allegedly forced to give false testimony led to an incident in which she says Milvitsky raped her. Recently, in another interview on News 12, A’ claimed that during that visit, she was a guest at the Kabbalah for the People house in Petah Tikva for a Friday dinner, where Milvitsky invited her to his office to talk about her upcoming testimony.

“We were having a professional conversation, and in the middle of it he says: ‘Let’s have sex, everyone does it,’” A’ said. According to the report, she managed to avoid the incident in that case. But the alleged rape, according to her, occurred after she testified in court, when Milvitsky accompanied her to the hotel room where she was staying and raped her.

Milvitsky himself admitted in another trial that he knew A’, confirmed that he had been in long-term personal contact with her and described himself as her personal driver during her visit to Israel. In the same trial, an allegation was made about a sex video (in which he is announcing himself in the bathroom while at home with his family - Milvitsky’s wife filed for divorce and divorced), which he allegedly sent to A’.

Milvitsky categorically denies this, as well as the charges of rape and incitement to give false testimony.

Lawyer Gelman also denies the charges brought against him. One of the witnesses in the criminal case against Milvitsky is Benyamin Rafaeli, nicknamed “Boka”, a former member of Kabbalah for the People, who was Laitman’s head of security and was in direct contact with A’.

Rafaeli left Kabbalah for the People, publicly criticized what was happening in the movement and gave an interview to the investigation of “News 12”. During the interview, he accused Laitman of rape, claimed that Milvitsky was responsible for the false testimony and added that A’ received $20,000 for it.

In response, the association filed a libel suit against him for NIS 2.87 million The civil case against Rafaeli was conducted in parallel with the secret investigation against Milvitsky. This is the process in which the deputy had to answer accusations about his connections with A’.

Only after the investigation became public did Rafaeli tell the court that he had helped the police and even mentioned that A’ had personally told him that Milvitsky had raped her.

Rafaeli asked to be allowed to call A’ to testify in court or via video link so that she could confirm his version of false testimony and sexual crimes.

“As part of the investigative actions, A’ accused Laitman, Milvitsky, Gelman and Vinokur, each in accordance with his role in the case: Laitman – of rape, Milvitsky – of rape and inducement to give false testimony, Vinokur and Gelman – of inducement to give false testimony,” wrote Rafaeli’s lawyer Dudi Perahia. “Although the defendant [Rafaeli] knew this information, he was forbidden to talk about it, much less testify in court, for fear of interfering with the trial and distorting the evidence. Of course, attorney Gelman, one of the main suspects in the case, could not interrogate A’, who is a victim of a crime.”

Attorney Perahia noted that now that the investigation has been resolved, there are no longer any obstacles to interrogating A’ in the civil case. To overcome A’s expected refusal to testify, he proposed using a mechanism established by law, according to which the office of the attorney general would contact the Russian authorities and coordinate the interrogation procedure. Judge Dror Arad-Yilon rejected the request on a technical ground: the case had already passed the evidence stage and the witnesses had already been interrogated. The judge noted that Rafaeli had already filed a request to call A’ at an earlier stage in the case, but then abandoned it.

“I found no basis in the no-contact argument that would prevent the request to subpoena her,” the judge wrote in a ruling issued last week. “Moreover, even the no-contact argument does not prevent the witness from being summoned to court by various available means, including going to court.”

Judge Arad-Elon ordered Rafaeli to pay Bnei Baruch – Kabbalah for the People NIS 4,000 in legal costs.

Milvitsky and Kabbalah for the People were at the center of an investigation by Shakuf and Seventh Eye that revealed how the movement’s students organized mass recruitment drives for the Likud party, ran a voter mobilization center for the party, and encouraged Laitman’s followers to become “ambassadors” through mass infiltration of government bodies.

Kabbalah for the People claims that the movement does not engage in political activity, but testimonies from former followers presented as part of the investigation indicate that the political initiative comes directly from the spiritual leader Michael Laitman and his closest associates, including Hanoch Milvitsky. Despite the criminal suspicions, after the investigation was revealed, the coalition members elected Milvitsky as chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee.