Netanyahu spokesman quits, admits to racist remarks on Mizrahi Jews, attacks on PM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman and acting chief of staff Ziv Agmon announced Wednesday that he is stepping down, a day after racist comments he made against Mizrahi Jews and attacks on Netanyahu himself were revealed.

In a statement released by Netanyahu’s office, Agmon acknowledged that the quotes are real, but claimed that they were taken out of context.

“Over the past week, a person with whom I had a long-standing friendly relationship decided to pass on partial quotes from our private conversations,” Agmon said. “The vast majority of these conversations took place even before I entered my role in the Prime Minister’s Office. The quotes that were shared were taken out of context, and their sole purpose was to carry out a character assassination against me and harm the prime minister whom I serve.”

Agmon said the reports about him do not represent him or his values, and that allegations of racism against Jews of Moroccan origin are “ridiculous in light of the fact that my immediate family has Moroccan roots.”

“The attempt to take fragments of sentences from personal and private conversations — most of them from years ago — make them public, and present them as current and official positions of the speaker must be condemned,” he said, while apologizing to anyone who was hurt by the statements.

Agmon said that he joined Netanyahu’s office to serve behind the scenes, but since he is now in the limelight and “a divisive public discourse had formed around me,” he informed Netanyahu that he was stepping down from his role.

“I wish to express my deep appreciation to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” he wrote. “The great privilege of my life has been to assist him in these historic days, alongside Mrs. Sara Netanyahu, whose steadfast support strengthens the prime minister and the entire office.”

According to Channel 12 news, which first reported the remarks on Tuesday night, Agmon criticized Netanyahu as “old” and declared him “finished” after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre on southern Israel.

“The question is whether we’ll still have a state. He must go home. I wonder who will be responsible for negotiating for the hostages, [Likud ministers Shlomo] Karhi or [David] Amsalem? The country is finished,” the network quoted him as saying.

“It’s over for the Likud,” he also reportedly said, adding that “the Egyptians need to release the recording of the conversation with Bibi” — a reference to claims that Egypt warned Netanyahu ahead of October 7. “And then he’s finished.”

Recalling that Netanyahu “fainted in the synagogue on Yom Kippur [in 2022], Agmon reportedly mused, “Why isn’t [Opposition Leader Yair] Lapid playing on the fact that he’s old and we need a leader for the long-term?”

Agmon also allegedly used extreme rhetoric when referring to Likud lawmakers of Middle Eastern, or Sephardi, descent, calling MK Nissim Vaturi a “baboon” and MK Eli Revivo a “retarded Moroccan,” and saying that “it’s unclear how these people get elected to the Knesset.”

Agmon was also said to have called MK Eli Dallal a “nobody,” adding: “What baboons. It’s a shame we can’t just appoint the entire list and do away with the primaries.”

In a further attack on the ruling party, Agmon reportedly said: “We should publish a wanted ad for rapists and murderers for the Likud list for the Knesset, because there is already a thief, a burglar and a kidnapper.”

Turning to the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Agmon was quoted as saying that it “only knows how to take money,” while describing members of Benny Gantz’s opposition Blue and White party as “monkeys.”

In addition, Agmon was quoted to have criticized Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, for owning “a Dior bag that is worth as much as a Rolex,” as well as their son Yair for having “forced” former foreign minister Eli Cohen “to issue him a diplomatic passport, even though there is no justification for it.”

Likud lawmakers and opposition politicians condemned Agmon’s remarks, with many calling for his dismissal. Senior members of Netanyahu’s cabinet likewise slammed Agmon.

This was not the first time that Agmon has come under fire for his behavior.

Last year, the Israel Bar Association’s disciplinary court decided to suspend him for violating the duty of loyalty to a client and for behavior that is unbecoming of a lawyer.

Agmon’s suspension was supposed to have taken effect on July 1, 2025, but he has appealed the ruling to the Jerusalem District Court, which has frozen the suspension until it issues a final ruling on the matter.

According to the Ynet news site, the Bar Association’s court last April ruled that, within the framework of a property purchase, he had transferred NIS 1.7 million from a trust fund of a client to a seller before receiving the necessary permits.