Netanyahus deny reports Yad Vashem beef centered on singer

Sara Netanyahu and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak to the press from the tarmac at Ben Gurion International Airport on September 3, 2023. (Carrie-Keller-Lynn/Times of Israel)
Sara Netanyahu and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak to the press from the tarmac at Ben Gurion International Airport on September 3, 2023. (Carrie-Keller-Lynn/Times of Israel)

Sara Netanyahu is denying an unsourced Channel 12 news report that claimed she is pushing for the ouster of Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum head Dani Dayan over the fact that a singer linked to anti-government protests was invited to sing at a memorial there.

The premier’s wife, heading with him to Cyprus, terms the report a “fake news attack” and says rather than oppose singer Keren Peles, she was moved by her performance.

“I heard Keren Peles, I didn’t know about her before, I don’t about her since, there’s no basis for any of the rest of the story that I censored this or that, the opposite in fact,” she tells reporters.

Nothing happened, she insists. “The performer sang, she sang well, I have no clue and had none then or now if she is involved in the protests.”

Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the allegations himself at the same time, claiming that the previous unity government had replaced every political appointee who was aligned with the right wing and his Likud partyand yet no one accused it of politicizing those offices.

Netanyahu declines, however, to say whether the government would be sticking with its effort to remove Dayan.

“There is no politicization but unfortunately there is no shortage of fake news,” he says.

Dayan reportedly booked Peles months before the overhaul was unveiled.

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