State Attorney Amit Isman on Sunday recommended launching a criminal investigation against the popular singer Eyal Golan on suspicion of inciting violence against the residents of Gaza. A few days after the October 7 Hamas massacre, Golan called to “wipe out Gaza” and “not leave a single person there.”
Golan’s statement was quoted in the claim document submitted by South Africa to the ICC in The Hague, alongside other quotes from ministers such as Itamar Ben Gvir and other Israeli officials and celebrities. They even cited a comparison of the Hamas murderers to the Biblical cursed nation of Amalek.
Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara will decide whether an investigation will indeed be launched.
Eyal Golan’s production company responded: “Am Yisrael Chai.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir tweeted misspelling the prosecutor’s name):
Gaza ❤️ Aisman
Israel ❤️ Eyal Golan— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) August 18, 2024
Meanwhile, State Attorney Isman is considering a criminal investigation against the singer Kobi Peretz for inciting violence against the residents of Gaza after the October 7 massacre, Reshet Bet Radio reported on Monday.
ISMAN’S SHADY PAST
In October 2017, a female attorney testified about offensive sexual statements that she claimed Isman had made toward her. At the end of an internal disciplinary procedure in which another statement was revealed, and a hearing held for Isman, in May 2018, the Director General of the Ministry of Justice, Amy Palmore, determined that he would be given a warning. It was further determined that his statements did not constitute sexual harassment, but inappropriate behavior.
In December 2020, Isman published an article in Haaretz in which he apologized for both incidents.
In January 2021, an article was published in Haaretz, signed by the two female attorneys who launched the complaints, repeating the allegations against Isman, and criticizing his appointment as State Prosecutor.
I ASKED MYSELF ‘WHAT? WHY?’
The former Deputy State Attorney for Special Assignments, attorney Nurit Litman, on Monday criticized State Attorney Isman’s recommendation to launch a criminal investigation against Golan, telling Reshet Bet Radio: “One should not divorce one’s common sense. I would not have launched a criminal investigation, and in my view, this is not even in the gray area. When I heard the report yesterday, I said to myself, ‘What? Why?’”
“I’m not sure that the problem is selective enforcement,” Litman continued. “The fact is that they examined other names and chose not to launch an investigation, but maybe it’s not a case of selective enforcement, but common sense.”
Rony Eitan wrote in Makor Rishon on Monday:
“On October 7, the State of Israel experienced the most terrible day in its history. The deadliest day since the Nazis left the picture. Our neighbors across the border went on a rampage of slaughter, rape, and looting, sparing no man, woman, child, or baby, abusing, burning, abducting people from their homes, and celebrating their barbaric achievement with a massive orgy of a collective outburst of joy.
“A reaction of abysmal hatred for Gazans is not only expected, it is justified. The people who experienced what we experienced on 10/7 have not only the right, but the very duty, to hate the evil that arose over them with all their souls, and to desire its destruction. Statements about the destruction of Gaza were not at that time the preserve of the fringes, but of almost the entire public in Israel. It was impossible to expect anything else from us. It is immoral to demand of us to feel otherwise.”
Eitan recalled:
“The residents of Be’eri wished they could see the sea from their kibbutz at the end of the war. Invites to summer parties on the deserted Gaza beach filled the social networks. MKs, not only from the right, began to seriously discuss a transfer. The phrase ‘wipe out Gaza’ and announcements that it’s ‘either us or them’ were heard from every corner, even from senior ranks. Judging everyone who spoke out like Eyal Golan in the first days after the massacre would leave very few Israelis free of suspicion, and Israelis should not be ashamed of it. They reacted like normal flesh and blood human beings, experiencing what we all experienced ten months ago.
“In fact, it is worth wondering if the abnormal part was the way we returned to normalcy too quickly, and too easily, and were disconnected from those feelings, letting the memory of the rage fade. The fact that so many are willing to put up with the end of the war against Hamas while it controls the Strip, a step that was unimaginable to those people after the massacre, suggests that this is indeed the case.”
JUST IN CASE YOU DIDN’T KNOW
In November 2013, Golan was arrested as part of a group of men suspected of having sex with underage girls. Golan denied the charges but admitted that his father, Danny Biton, had brought girls to his home for sex. Although the charges against Golan were later dropped for lack of evidence, the allegations caused Golan’s songs to receive less radio airplay and for performances to be canceled.
In December 2018, Golan was honored by the Knesset, but many MKs and women’s groups expressed anger that he would be honored. Protesters interrupted the event but were removed by security before Golan performed a duet with MK Nava Boker, the chairwoman of the Knesset Caucus for Hebrew Music.
