From the Liveblog of
Sunday, October 15, 2023
Calls mount for aide to Sara Netanyahu to be suspended over inflammatory posts
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The Civil Service Commission demands Sara Netanyahu’s chief of staff Tzipi Navon be suspended due to inflammatory social media posts she has written in recent days, including accusing various elements in Israeli society of being “traitors” and “fifth columnists.”
In one Facebook post denouncing a group criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the October 7 Hamas massacre, Navon says that “traitors from the left are continuing to incite” against the premier.
In another post she says that Channel 12 and 13 News were trying to “divide and harm Jewish morale” during the current war with Gaza, and separately called Channel 12 “fifth columnists.”
In another post, Navon re-posted a picture of body bags, ostensibly of victims of the Hamas massacre, writing: “Well pedophile friend, Brothers in Arms, air force and army enlistment refusers, are you satisfied now???,” in reference to former prime minister Ehud Barak and the anti-judicial overhaul movement.
Sara Netanyahu’s chief of staff is a state-paid position in the civil service working as an employee in the prime minister’s residence, which is under the authority of the Prime Minister’s Office.
“These statements are severe and offensive which are not appropriate for a state employee, especially when it comes to an employee of the Prime Minister’s Office and even more so a female employee of the prime minister’s residence,” the disciplinary department of the Civil Service Commission writes to Yossi Shelley, the director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, and called for her to be suspended for violating the terms of employment for civil servants.
