PM’s office said to backtrack after tapping controversial Likud activist for key role

Tal Gilboa, a hardline animal rights activist who was reported in recent days to be tapped as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s next spokesperson, will not be appointed to the position, according to multiple reports Sunday, after a series of xenophobic and homophobic remarks attributed to her resurfaced over the weekend.

Gilboa’s appointment to the spokesperson position, which was recently vacated following a separate controversy over the now-former spokesman’s history of racist remarks, was announced over the weekend by her partner but had not been publicly confirmed by Gilboa or the Prime Minister’s Office.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not reply to a request for comment from The Times of Israel.

Most media reports, including on Ynet, Channel 12, and Israel Hayom, framed her as a direct replacement for Ziv Agmon, who stepped down from the post last week. The Walla news site gave a different take, saying Gilboa, who has no previous experience in the role, had been offered an opportunity to join the PMO not as a primary spokesperson, but as a member of Netanyahu’s “spokesperson team.”

The reports indicated that the media storm over Gilboa’s appointment had led to its cancellation.

News of Gilboa’s expected ostensible appointment was met with backlash from Netanyahu’s political opponents, after a Channel 12 report on Saturday highlighted her history of making bigoted and prejudiced remarks.

According to the report, Gilboa has used offensive language to refer to Russian Israelis and to members of the LGBTQ+ community. She has also, as a hardline animal rights activist and vegan, made derogatory remarks about meat-eaters.

Channel 12 quoted Gilboa as saying she would not donate blood to an elderly leukemia patient or an 8-year-old cancer patient, as they were not vegans, stating that if a meat-eater dies, that means “less suffering.”

She also reportedly called a social media user a “gay piece of crap” and referred to Russian immigrants as “disgusting.”

Gilboa, who won the reality show Big Brother in 2014, is the founder of the Israeli branch of the extremist Animal Liberation Front. Under Gilboa, the ALF engaged in various protest activities, including breaking into slaughterhouses, the Ynet news site reported in 2017. She was tapped by Netanyahu as his animal rights adviser in 2019.

The Channel 12 report also said that Gilboa had once called demonstrators for the return of hostages held in Gaza “victimhood whores.”

Gilboa is herself related to the now freed hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal.

Netanyahu is currently looking to replace former spokesman Agmon, who left the Prime Minister’s Office last week after it emerged that he had criticized the prime minister and used racist language when talking about members of his ruling Likud party.

Responding to the news of Gilboa’s apparent pending appointment, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid had on Saturday tweeted that Netanyahu “replaced a racist against Moroccans with a racist against Russians.”

“Such statements have no place in the State of Israel in 2026, and certainly not in the Prime Minister’s Office. This is a fundamentally flawed appointment,” Lapid wrote.

Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party, which represents many Russian-speaking voters, wrote on X: “It seems that racism is a condition of acceptance into Netanyahu’s office.”

Netanyahu is reportedly considering Tal Gilboa, a Big Brother winner and vegan activist, as his spokeperson.

she's throwing wine at someone in this video…by Big Brother standards, not the worst you could do. But a sign she'd do more trouble than good for the PM.

Last night… https://t.co/9PRI0JHYVW

— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) March 29, 2026

Agmon quit last week after Channel 12 reported that he had both criticized the prime minister and referred to Likud lawmakers of Middle Eastern, or Sephardic, descent in racist terms.

He allegedly called MK Nissim Vaturi a “baboon” and MK Eli Revivo a “retarded Moroccan,” and said 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.”

Netanyahu has not publicly commented on Agmon’s statements.

In a statement released by Netanyahu’s office last week, Agmon acknowledged that the quotes attributed to him were 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.”

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

Lazar Berman contributed to this report.