Yair Golan: IDF chief should have refused to broadcast Netanyahu’s UN speech in Gaza

Yair Golan, chair of the left-wing Democrats party, says IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir should have refused the order to broadcast Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s United Nations speech in Gaza.

Netanyahu, who addressed the UN General Assembly on Friday, had ordered the military to broadcast the speech on loudspeakers in the Gaza Strip. The speech was reportedly played on speakers mounted on nine trucks on the Israeli border with Gaza and within the Strip itself. A link to a broadcast of the speech was also said to have been texted to Palestinians in the Strip.

In an interview with Channel 12, Golan slams Zamir for following the order to broadcast the speech, saying it “really disappointed” him.

“I would have gone into a room with the prime minister and said, ‘Listen, I’m ready to do anything logical for this operation, but here there’s no operational logic. I won’t do this,'” Golan says.

When asked whether he thinks Zamir should have refused to carry out the order, Golan replies, “Unequivocally.”

“This has no justification,” he continues. “I’m not just talking about a risk to soldiers. I’m saying that blatantly, this is a step where the only reason to carry it out is the prime minister’s political needs.”

He repeats that Zamir should have objected privately, rather than making a public declaration refusing the order.