Democratic Party chairman Yair Golan on Tuesday sent Sara Netanyahu a formal warning ahead of possible defamation proceedings over remarks in which the prime minister’s wife suggested that he had advance knowledge of the October 7 Hamas attack.
Golan’s lawyers warned that unless Netanyahu issues a public apology within 24 hours and agrees to pay compensation, he intends to file a lawsuit seeking at least NIS 2.5 million.
Yair Golan, Sara Netanyahu
(Photo: Oliver Contreras / AFP, Dana Kopel)
The compensation, according to the letter, would be donated in full to survivors of the Nova music festival massacre.
The warning follows Netanyahu’s interview on Channel 14, in which she questioned how Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff, arrived in southern Israel so early on the morning of October 7.
“You claim that you were a fighter on October 7. Early in the morning, you were already there, dressed and ready,” Netanyahu said. “At a very early hour, when others knew nothing, including the prime minister.”
She later added sarcastically: “After all, who is the prime minister that he needs to know a war is breaking out? Why inform him?”
Asked during the interview about the so-called “betrayal theory,” Netanyahu said she did not want to discuss it and voiced opposition to a state commission of inquiry.
Golan’s legal warning says the remarks amount to “defamation in its gravest form” and are part of what he describes as a deliberate effort to rewrite the history of October 7, smear those who rushed to defend the country and obscure the government’s responsibility for the failures surrounding the attack.
The letter was sent on Golan’s behalf by attorneys Giora Erdinast, Almog Gil-Or and Yarden Shochat of the EBN law firm.
It demands that Netanyahu publish what the lawyers describe as an unequivocal public apology within 24 hours.
The proposed wording reads: “I retract the statements I made in the Channel 14 interview regarding Mr. Yair Golan, which were nothing more than false and baseless nonsense. Mr. Golan went to the Gaza border area on October 7 armed only with his weapon and, while risking his life, rescued young people from the Nova festival. Mr. Golan, like all Israeli citizens, learned of the Hamas attack when the first sirens sounded at 6:29 a.m. on October 7 and, as a result, decided to act and went to the area.”
The letter also sets out Golan’s account of that morning.
According to the warning, Golan learned of the attack only when the sirens sounded at 6:29 a.m. He then left his home in his private vehicle, drove to the Home Front Command headquarters, obtained an assault rifle and continued south toward the Gaza border communities.
The letter says Golan repeatedly entered areas where young people fleeing the Nova festival had taken shelter and rescued six of them while risking his life.
His lawyers accuse Netanyahu of making “defamatory and false statements” that sought to portray Golan as if he had been “a partner in an act of betrayal.”
They also argue that the remarks were calculated to damage his reputation ahead of the elections.
“Our client will not lend a hand to an attempt to erase the heroism of IDF soldiers, civilian security squads, civilians and volunteers by rewriting history,” the letter says.
Golan said in a recorded statement that the dispute went beyond a personal attack.
“They are trying to rewrite October 7 in order to erase Netanyahu’s responsibility for the greatest failure in the history of the country,” he said.
“For that purpose, they are trying to turn those who rose to defend the country into traitors, and those who funded Hamas and abandoned security into victims.”
“This is not only an attack on me,” Golan added. “It is an attack on an entire public of soldiers, volunteers and civilians who stepped forward when the Netanyahu government collapsed.”
He said that his party would establish a state commission of inquiry if it came to power.
“We will get to the truth and find those responsible for the failure,” he said.
The controversy had already drawn international attention after AFP reported on Netanyahu’s remarks and said they echoed conspiracy theories that have repeatedly circulated in Israeli political discourse.
Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar party, also condemned the remarks Tuesday.
“There are those who tell us that ‘they weren’t woken up,’ and there are those who got up and charged forward without asking questions,” Eisenkot wrote on X.
“The insane betrayal conspiracy, which has no factual basis whatsoever, is intended only to inflame hatred and perpetuate Netanyahu’s rule, whose only way of governing is division,” he added.