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Golan sues threat
Israeli opposition Democrats party chair Yair Golan threatened to sue Sara Netanyahu for defamation over her Channel 14 remarks suggesting he had advance knowledge of Hamas’ October 7 attack, giving her 24 hours to apologize or face legal action.
“threatening to sue the prime minister's wife for 2.5 million shekels”
Haaretz reported that Golan set the potential damages at 2.5 million shekels and said he would sue the prime minister’s wife if she did not apologize, while i24NEWS said the formal notice was sent on Monday through attorneys Giora Erdinst, Almog Gil-Or and Jordan Shohat of the EBN law firm.
In the Channel 14 interview described by i24NEWS, Sara Netanyahu questioned how Golan had arrived in southern Israel so early that morning, saying, “When you are an officer of such a high rank and you claim to have fought on October 7, you were already there early in the morning, dressed and prepared.”
i24NEWS also said Golan demanded a “public and unequivocal” apology within 24 hours and asked that any compensation be donated to survivors of the Nova music festival, while Haaretz said the dispute centered on whether he had advance knowledge of the Hamas-led attack.
Apology demands and rebuttal
Golan’s warning letter, as described by The Jerusalem Post, demanded that Sara Netanyahu issue a public apology within 24 hours or face a NIS 2.5 million lawsuit for “defamation in its most serious form,” and it also required a donation to survivors of the Supernova music festival.
The Jerusalem Post quoted Sara Netanyahu’s Channel 14 remarks, including, “When you are a military officer of such a high rank and claim that you fought on October 7, you were already there early in the morning, already dressed and prepared; at a very early hour, when others did not know, such as the prime minister,” while also saying she added, “In general, who is the prime minister who needs to know that a war is breaking out? Why inform him?”
By press time on Tuesday, The Jerusalem Post said Sara Netanyahu had not issued an apology, and it reported that Netanyahu’s ruling Likud said her comments were not a conspiracy and that “Sara Netanyahu never claimed there was a conspiracy surrounding October 7.”
Yair Golan responded by accusing Netanyahu’s camp of trying to rewrite October 7, and The Jerusalem Post quoted him saying, “They are trying to rewrite October 7 in order to erase Netanyahu’s responsibility for the greatest failure in the country’s history.”
Counter-threats and Gaza backdrop
Sara Netanyahu then responded with a legal warning of her own, according to Ynetnews, demanding an apology, removal of Golan’s statements, and NIS 100,000 in compensation while threatening to sue him for NIS 1 million if he did not comply within 48 hours.
“calling the claim “wild lies””
Ynetnews reported that Netanyahu’s attorney Uriel Nizri rejected Golan’s accusation and called it “wild lies,” while also saying the letter argued her comments were sarcastic remarks about those who failed to inform Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in time about the Hamas attack.
In parallel, The New Indian Express said Benjamin Netanyahu accused security officials on Tuesday of intentionally failing to wake him during the morning of Hamas’s October 7 attacks, quoting him saying, “Why didn't they wake me? Because they knew that I, as prime minister of Israel, would immediately have ordered to put the entire army on alert.”
The New Indian Express also placed the dispute amid the wider war, stating Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, that militants took 251 hostages with 44 already dead, and that Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed at least 73,462 people, according to the Palestinian territory’s health ministry.