Yisrael Beytenu MK calls Netanyahu a ‘traitor’ – then apologizes

6 June 2023, 4:13 pm

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Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky chairs a meeting of the Knesset Religious Services Committee on October 27, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky calls Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “traitor, a liar and a fraudster,” then quickly apologizes.

Malinovsky makes the comments on Channel 12 news after she was asked about the prime minister’s ongoing activities on the judicial overhaul in public versus behind closed doors.

“Bibi is the same Bibi, the sun is the same sun, he’s a traitor, a liar and a fraudster,” says Malinovsky, as the other members of the panel immediately react angrily to her words.

Malinovsky then implies that she was referring to Netanyahu cheating on his wife Sara (which the prime minister admitted to in 1993), and says “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that, I shouldn’t get into people’s personal lives.”

The Hebrew word boged is widely used to mean a traitor as well as someone who cheats on their significant other.

The word holds heavy significance in Israeli politics, in part because it was used as a label by some extremists against prime minister Yitzhak Rabin before he was assassinated.