BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister was sharply criticised by Opposition politicians after his office accused a senior investigative journalist of being a “left-wing extremist” after her programme criticised the Prime Minister’s office and how it operates.

Ilana Dayan, the anchor of Channel Two’s long-running “Uvda” (fact) programme presented an hour-long investigation of the Prime Minister’s Office. Including interviews with various officials who have worked there, the programme portrayed an office rife with animosity and examined the influence of Netanyahu’s wife Sara.

At the end of the broadcast, Dayan read a response from Netanyahu’s office, that accused Dayan of being “one of the leaders of a concerted feeding frenzy on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which is aimed at toppling the right-wing government”.

The statement described the programme as “a political broadcast against the prime minister and his wife, all of it a recycling of warped gossip and vicious lies”. It described Dayan as a “member of the extreme-left” who has “a problem with the nation”. The statement concluded “Dayan’s show this evening demonstrates perfectly why the media industry needs to undergo reform” as “the general public has long ago lost trust in the main media organisations”.

Opposition leaders condemned the response by Netanyahu’s office. The Zionist Union called it “incitement, pure and simple,” and accused Netanyahu of turning Israel into a “KGB state”. Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid said that Netanyahu’s response did not “befit his status, his position and the respect we hold for the state”.

The controversy over the programme has played into the intense public debate over the future of Israel’s public broadcasting. Prime Minister Netanyahu is backing legislation to prevent the launch of a new public broadcasting corporation on the grounds that it is too expensive. However, critics say that Netanyahu’s opposition is based on a fear that the new body will be too critical of his government.