Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on firing Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan in what local media reports described as an order from the residence, alluding to Netanyahu's wife Sara.
‘YAD VASHEM’ CONTROVERSY
(ILTV)
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Dayan who was appointed by Netanyahu to be the Consul General in New York in 2016, had fallen out of favor after he defected from the Likud Party to join Netanyahu nemesis Gideon Saar's party when he left the Likud taking a number of members with him, a move that ultimately deprived Netanyahu of power for two years.
Dayan most recently evoked ire among Netanyahu allies, when he invited Keren Peles, an Israeli singer, to appear at a memorial service at Yad Vashem after she had participated in a mass protest of the government's judicial legislation.
According to a report on Israel's Channel 12, Peles appeared at the protest dressed like a character in the dystopian novel The Handmaiden's Tale," used by women protesting what they regard as legislation that would threaten women's rights and are an assault on liberal democracy. Her appearance at Yad Vashem sealed Dayan's fate and his removal was decided on. The Prime Minister's office denied the report.
In order to justify the decision, Education Minister Yoav Kisch, who has the authority to appoint the chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, dispatched a letter to Dayan, claiming irregularities in the management of Yad Vashem. Kisch objected to the participation of three former lawmakers who were appointed to the board during the term of the previous government. The minister said the appointments were never approved in accordance with regulations and their participation raises questions over the legality of decisions made by the board.
Dayan rejected the claims and said that until ministers appointed new representatives to the board, the service of the three is in accordance with the law. Sources close to Dayan said Kisch was doing the bidding of his masters in his awkward attempt to remove the chairman and appoint a member of Likud in his place, without merit.
Calls to remove Dayan were increasingly made over social media in recent months, some shared by Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister's outspoken son. Officials said that the chances that Dayan would be removed were slim without a decision taken by the entire government.