Yair Golan files $843,000 suit against Sara Netanyahu over Oct. 7 conspiracy theory
Democrats party chair says lawsuit isn't just about his reputation, but about 'a government that has lost all restraint' after PM's wife insinuated he knew of Hamas attack in advance
Yair Golan, chair of the left-wing Democrats party, announced on Thursday that he had filed a NIS 2.55 million ($843,000) defamation and damages lawsuit against Sara Netanyahu, after the prime minister’s wife insinuated without evidence that he had advance knowledge of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack.
Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff, drew praise for his actions on the day of the assault, when he drove to the site of the Nova music festival massacre and rescued people.
Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff, drew praise for his actions on the day of the attack, when he drove to the site of the Nova music festival massacre and rescued people.
But in a recent interview with the pro-government Channel 14, the prime minister’s wife intimated that he had prior knowledge of the attack, saying he was “dressed and ready at a very, very early hour when others didn’t know.” By extension, her comments appeared to suggest that other senior current or former military figures knew of the attack ahead of time. She also appeared to question whether Golan had in fact fought on October 7.
“When you’re a military man of such high rank, claiming that you fought on October 7, already early in the morning you were there, already dressed and ready at a very, very early hour when others didn’t know, such as the prime minister,” she said directly after talking about Golan in the interview, which aired on August 31, adding sarcastically: “Who is the prime minister anyway to know that a war is breaking out? Why let him know?”
Golan then sent her a warning letter demanding that she retract and apologize for those comments and make a substantial donation to survivors of the Nova music festival massacre. She did not do so, and instead threatened to countersue him for NIS 1 million ($330,000).
Golan has said multiple times that he headed south on October 7 at around 8 a.m., roughly an hour and a half after the attack began. He says he drove to the site of the Nova massacre on his own initiative.
“This lawsuit is not only about my good name or what I did on October 7. It is a civil indictment by an entire political camp against a government that has lost all restraint,” Golan said in a statement announcing the filing.
He also accused the prime minister — who has never taken direct responsibility or apologized for the failures surrounding the October 7 attack — and his family of seeking to “escape responsibility for the worst failure in the country’s history” by trying to “rewrite history and turn those who rushed into the inferno to save lives into traitors.”
The suit also seeks civil damages on the grounds that Sara Netanyahu’s remarks constituted incitement to violence. Golan’s party says intelligence officials reported concrete warnings of threats against him following the interview, saying that online incitement surged 450 percent.
Police recently raised Golan’s threat level, according to the Democrats, but he has yet to receive state-funded protection. A government advisory panel postponed a decision on his security request despite recommending protection for fellow opposition politician Gadi Eisenkot, whom police assessed as facing the same threat level.
Sara Netanyahu is not the only member of her immediate family to spread conspiracy theories about October 7.
A day after his wife’s remarks, Netanyahu claimed that senior IDF and defense officials deliberately chose not to wake him hours before the Hamas attack began, despite seeing what he said were multiple signs of an impending attack, because “they knew that, as prime minister of Israel, I would have immediately given the order to put the entire military on alert” and would thereby have prevented the invasion.
He claimed without proof that the security chiefs avoided waking him because they were still convinced Hamas was deterred, and worried that putting the military on high alert would have prompted an actual Hamas attack or exchange of fire.
Later that day, however, the premier appeared to be trying to do damage control, and posted a video on social media stating that neither he nor his wife was accusing top security officials of “betrayal” regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, just “failure.”
The Netanyahus’ adult son Yair has also previously suggested there was treason in the lead-up to the attack, prompting the prime minister to reportedly tell lawmakers that while “there was a serious intelligence failure” ahead of the October 7 attack, “there was no treason.”
According to a Channel 12 report on Friday, Netanyahu took at least two hours to leave his Caesarea home and head to the IDF’s Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv after being told immediately that Hamas-led terrorists were attacking Israel at 6:29 on the morning of October 7, 2023. He did not contact the heads of the IDF and Shin Bet in that time, or en route to the Kirya, the TV report further said, asserting an inexplicably sluggish and limited initial response by Netanyahu to the Hamas onslaught.
According to his own published schedule, the prime minister only ordered the Gaza border closed and a full IDF mobilization at 9:55 a.m.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.