Shas threatens coalition crisis if new Channel 10 head not fired

The Shas party on Tuesday threatened to impose coalition sanctions unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately fires the newly appointed head of Channel 10 News over racist comments he is alleged to have made against Shas and its head, Aryeh Deri.

Rami Sadan, a close associate of the Netanyahu family, was quoted by the Haaretz newspaper Tuesday morning calling Deri a thief a day earlier and making a stereotyped reference to the party’s base of Mizrahi Jews of African and Middle Eastern descent.

“For as long as this is not carried out [the firing], the movement’s lawmakers will vote in the Knesset plenum as they see fit” instead of obeying coalition discipline, a Shas statement said. “The Mizrahi population has stopped being silent.”

Haaretz reported that Sadan, a former public relations executive and lobbyist who was appointed to his new post on Monday, told the Channel 10 News board of directors: “Let’s admit 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.”

“Massouda from Sderot” is a stereotype referring to a person of Mizrahi descent living on Israel’s periphery. It was originally coined by Alex Giladi, the first director of the Keshet TV franchise, who once said Keshet would supply programming to everyone in Israel, “to Massouda Cohen from Sderot and also to Moshe Rabinowitch from Yavne’el.”

The reference to Deri as a thief relates to the Shas leader’s conviction for bribery, for which he served a 22-month prison sentence.

Sadan’s comments were relayed to Haaretz by one of those present at the board meeting, who described the statements as “shameful and infuriating.” The source said “the smell of authoritarianism, arrogance and racism wafted” through the room.

An associate of Sadan denied he made the statement and attributed the report to an attempt to sow discord among ultra-Orthodox factions. “The quotes attributed to me are lies,” he told the ultra-Orthodox news site Kikar Hashabat.

The report on the comments set off a firestorm of criticism in the political world, with the Communications Ministry, headed by Netanyahu, ordering the Second Authority for Television and Radio, which oversees broadcasting licenses, to look into the remarks.

Responding to Sadan’s comments, Deri said the party’s voters were not “excess baggage,” rather “hundreds of thousands of Mizrahis who decided to come together and lift up their heads in order to defeat cases like Rami Sadan in the world. We are here to stay and will not ignore remarks like that.”

Slamming Sadan as a “pathetic racist,” MK Shelly Yachimovich (Zionist Union) described the Channel 10 chairman on her Twitter page as “the silencing arm of Balfour” – a reference to the official residence of the prime minster on Jerusalem’s Balfour Street. She added: “Woe to the fingers that approved this appointment.”

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid issued a statement condemning Sadan’s “racist, inciting and hateful” statements.

Sadan was appointed by the Channel 10 board in a vote Monday night, receiving the support of controlling shareholders and the CEO of the Nana10 website, according to Haaretz. His appointment was seen as an attempt to give Netanyahu influence over the channel’s news decisions.

Referring to Sadan as “a kind of long arm in the newsroom,” Matan Hodorov, who represents the journalists on Channel 10 News, said there were many people at the board meeting who heard his comments.

Hodorov told Army Radio on Tuesday: “We will not tolerate any smell of racism.” He said it was not appropriate for the channel’s chairman to be a “publicist, an associate of politicians and an expressed racist,” and apologized to Mizrahi listeners, whom he said made up an important part of the channel’s audience. “We are not an elite, Shas voters make up an important part of our audience and are among those working on the news team,” he said.

Hodorov said Sadan was not the leading candidate for the position but was nevertheless appointed in a lightning decision by the board.