Second Channel 10 official confirms new chairman insulted Shas

Channel 10’s director-general on Thursday called on newly appointed chairman Rami Sadan to resign immediately and confirmed that Sadan had slammed the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and its leader, setting off a coalition crisis.

Yossi Warshavsky was the second official at the TV station to confirm the controversial comments, denied by Sadan earlier in the week, after the news department’s director, Golan Yochpaz, on Tuesday insisted that Sadan had indeed made the statements attributed to him. Sadan’s comments were “racist” and “have no place among us,” Warshavsky said.

Sadan, a political lobbyist and close associate of the Netanyahu family, was quoted by Haaretz on Tuesday as having told the Channel 10 News board of directors the night before: “Let’s tell the truth: I, like you, part of the elite, hate the Shas movement and that thief Aryeh Deri. But we, as the elite, have to broaden the channel’s circles and appeal to the audience of Shas, to Massouda from Sderot,” using a stereotype referring to a person of Mizrahi descent living on Israel’s periphery.

Deri served a prison sentence between 2000 and 2002 for graft before resuming his political career ahead of the 2015 Knesset elections. The interior minister is currently under investigation on new graft suspicions.

Immediately after the comments were published, Shas called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who is also communications minister — to fire Sadan, threatening to break coalition discipline and skip Knesset votes until he did. On Wednesday, the Shas MKs stayed away from the plenum, entering only to vote against an opposition bill on conversion.

Without Shas’s seven Knesset members, the coalition will have just 59 votes out of the 120-seat plenum.

Sadan has repeatedly denied making any inappropriate comments and posted on Facebook that he is mulling a defamation suit, apparently against Haaretz.

But on Tuesday, Yochpaz wrote on Twitter: “After a firestorm that’s lasted for hours, it should be stated clearly: Rami Sadan told the members of the board and me, ‘I hate Shas and Deri just like you in the elite.’”

On Thursday, Warshavsky told colleagues at a work event for the upcoming Shavuot Jewish holiday: “I was at the board meeting of Channel 10 News at which Mr. Sadan spoke. He expressed himself about Shas in a racist manner that has no place among us,” Haaretz reported. “Every word of what the director of Channel 10 News Golan Yochpaz said on this subject is right, as well as what I reported officially to the Second Authority for Television and Radio.

“Also, if we look at the combination of things [said by] the rest of those present at the meeting, as presented by the Second Authority for Television and Radio itself, a difficult racist picture emerges,” he said, according to Haaretz.

Justice Salim Joubran on Thursday morning ordered Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and the Second Authority to respond to a High Court petition submitted on Wednesday by four Shas local authority heads to freeze Sadan’s appointment within a week until the facts have been fully checked and Channel 10 News employees had been given a chance to give evidence without the fear of being punished at work.

The petition also called on the court to order that the transcripts and recording of Monday night’s board meeting be made public.

The Shas petitioners argued that it was unacceptable for a public official in a position that is enshrined in law and that bears direct responsibility for determining the public agenda to express such “dark views” against an entire community.

Justice Joubran rejected the request for an immediate freeze of Sadan’s appointment, saying he “did not see the justification for an intermediate order at this time,” and gave the respondents — the Second Authority, the attorney general, and Sadan — until July 7 to respond.

Four Knesset members for Shas meanwhile also appealed directly to the attorney general to intervene. The Second Authority announced Wednesday that in light of the lawmakers’ request and the Supreme Court petition, the matter was being handed over to Deputy Attorney General Avi Licht.

Netanyahu and Deri were due to meet Thursday evening to discuss a way to resolve the crisis.

The Knesset Economic Affairs Committee will discuss Sadan’s appointment next week as well as the protection of press freedom in Israel’s commercial news channels.

Under the chairmanship of Eitan Cabel (Zionist Union), the committee will summon representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office, the Communications Ministry and Channel 10 board members and workers.

Shas has received support from across the political spectrum, with a number of lawmakers joining the chorus and urging Sadan be fired.

Sadan was appointed by the Channel 10 board in a vote Monday night, receiving the support of controlling shareholders and the CEO of the Channel 10 website. His appointment was seen by some as an attempt to give Netanyahu influence over the news decisions of the channel, which is considered critical of the prime minister’s policies and conduct.

Haaretz reported on Tuesday that Sadan played a role in Netanyahu’s first prime ministerial campaign, worked as an external adviser to Netanyahu during his first term on religious matters, and was a personal spokesman for the prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, until 1999. He is still connected to the prime minister’s circle of associates.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.