Yair Netanyahu publicly apologizes to highprofile television anchor
Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, apologized on his Twitter account to N12 anchorwoman Dana Weiss, whom he publicly attacked in a series of Twitter posts in May.
“There is no basis for the posts that I published on May 23, 24, and 25, 2020, towards Ms. Dana Weiss. I apologize to her for them, and urge all the web-surfers to shake [the incident] off, and to remove all publications on the matter.”
The prime minister retweeted his son’s tweet, which he captioned, “A post from my son Yair today on Twitter.”
In May, Netanyahu used his Twitter account to claim Weiss is in a “bribe-like relationship with Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit who gave her endless leaks [regarding] criminal [cases].”
He also implied that Weiss lacks job qualifications, writing on Twitter “does anyone know how Dana Weiss got such a top position on N12? Is she eloquent? No. Is she smart? No. Interesting….”
Weiss has yet to respond to the apology. However, following Yair Netanyahu comments in May, she and N12 announced that they were planning on suing Yair for libel.
The press release announcing the intention to sue Netanyahu claimed that Netanyahu posted “slanderous, misogynistic” tweets.
It added that, “These are false and grave statements that constitute defamation.”
Netanyahu responded to Weiss’s announcement by tweeting that if he were to sue N12, which he calls “Al Jazeera,” he would “earn a lot of money from you but would be in courts all day.” He said he will pick “a few to make an example of,” mentioning Igal Sarna as an example.
Sarna published a Facebook post in 2016 alleging that the prime minister was forced out of an official car ride by his wife, Sara Netanyahu. The Netanyahu family sued him for libel for which he was found guilty and forced to pay them NIS 100,000. Sarna was also fired from his job as a reporter for Yediot Aharonot.
He also tweeted in response to the news “want to hear a joke? N12 is suing me for libel on behalf of Dana Weiss” he added that the news channel should “expect a hit” from him.