PMO staff track media reports on Netanyahu family

The Prime Minister’s Office directs employees tasked with reviewing general media reports to focus on items covering the Netanyahu family and immediately notify senior staff of what is being said and about whom, the Haaretz daily reported on Tuesday.

Former workers in the National Public Diplomacy Division’s information and communications technology department said that over the past six years they would monitor two radio channels, watch three television channels, comb Internet news websites and social media, as well as trawl daily newspapers to find media stories about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife Sara, and their two sons.

An internal memo from four years ago instructed workers to pay particular attention to any entertainment programs for relevant items, in addition to current affairs programs.

“It is a system that is supposed to focus on national diplomacy and not the private matters of the prime minister,” said one former worker. “But a situation arose in which it was all mixed up and the priorities were reversed. Firstly we dealt with the agenda of the Netanyahu family, and only afterwards with the rest of the matters.”

Information gathered was included in a daily dispatch of headline news sent out Netanyahu and his advisers each morning that had an emphasis on articles about his family, the report said.

A function of the NPDD is to give the prime minister and his advisers a view of the media agenda each day and to provide real time updates on media publications that are relevant to the prime minister. However, staffers were also charged with keeping track of stories about the Netanyahu family and Sara Netanyahu, the report said.

A memo from 2011 instructed workers that “often personal items about the prime minister’s family appear that are more important than any other information report that shows in the news broadcasts or other current affairs programs!”

Previous employees said that the policies are still in place today. During the recent court hearings of a law suit filed by a Menny Naftali, a former housekeeper for the Netanyahu’s, the department dredged up media reports that included sordid allegations about the premier’s home life, and in particular the behavior of his wife Sara.

The man who oversaw the gossip-gathering was Avraham Finkelstein, head of information and communications technologies department at the National Public Diplomacy Division. He was appointed to the position in 2009 and has held the post ever since. Currently he is also heading the Likud election campaign.

An internal document obtained by Haaretz that includes guidelines for the workers in the department stated that “in the event of news about the prime minister’s family, you should notify Avraham via SMS. These notifications are particularly sensitive and it is important to be aware of them above all others.”

Documents show there was a lot of pressure on Finkelstein’s team to keep track of the media reports on the family, and Sara.

In 2010 he sent out a memo to the workers stressing that senior staff wanted the information and to not let anything slip past.

“If the screw ups don’t end they will take our heads off,” he wrote. “It can’t be that we miss items about the prime minister’s family. Please respond, and mostly let me know and send out an SMS. There is nothing more important than this. Please be smart.”

Former workers told of how on many occasions urgent requests were sent from the Prime Minister’s Bureau to provide multiple copies of radio and TV show recordings on DVD that were taken by car to the office.

The report didn’t say who was behind the fascination with the tattle, or what use was made of the gathered information.

However in a response to Haaretz, Finkelstein said he “totally rejects the claim” that anything other than government matters were prioritized by his department.

The revelations came as activities at the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem have come under increased scrutiny amid allegations that Sara Netanyahu pocketed thousands of shekels in returns on recycled bottles.