Yair Netanyahu (
Hebrew: יאיר נתניהו; born 26 July 1991)[1][2] is an Israeli podcaster and political activist. He is the eldest son of the Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu lived with his parents at
Beit Aghion, the prime minister's official residence in
Rehavia,
Jerusalem.[12] They left after Netanyahu lost the 2021 election.[13]
In January 2014, a Norwegian newspaper reported that Netanyahu was dating Sandra Leikanger, a Norwegian student. The couple had met while they were students at the
Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. The news triggered outrage because Leikanger was not Jewish.[14][11] In 2015, Netanyahu briefly dated Lee Levi, a Danish-Israeli model and student.[15][16]
According to
Haaretz, Netanyahu uses social media "for the benefit of spreading lies, defamation and slander against those who are perceived in his eyes as enemies of the camp headed by his father".[18] He is known for defending his father on social media.[19][12][20]
Netanyahu has also published his opinions in Breitbart News, an American
far-right[21] news and opinion website.[22] In late 2017, Netanyahu posted a meme on
Facebook portraying his father's political opponents as puppets controlled by
George Soros; the meme garnered support from US
white nationalists, including
David Duke, and
neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer which described itself as "The World’s #1 Yair Netanyahu fansite".[19][23][24] Netanyahu later deleted the post following backlash.[19]
In December 2018, he was suspended from Facebook for 24 hours after posting anti-Muslim content.[25][26][27] One of Netanyahu's comments read: "There will never be peace with those monsters in the form of men that have called themselves 'Palestinians' since 1964".[19]
In March 2019, he was asked to leave his work at the Israel Law Center, an NGO that provides legal services to terror victims, after criticizing President
Reuven Rivlin for his efforts on behalf of Arab-Israeli coexistence.[9]
In July 2019, Netanyahu expressed support for British anti-Islam activist
Tommy Robinson, during the latter's imprisonment by British authorities.[30]
In September 2019, Netanyahu accused former Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin, who was
assassinated in 1995, of having "murdered Holocaust survivors on the
Altalena". The comments were disavowed by his father.[31][32][33] He has compared
Roni Alsheikh, the Israel Police chief who played a role in the
Netanyahu corruption investigations, to the fictional mobster
Tony Soprano.[19] While being questioned by police during the investigations, Netanyahu called the police "
Stasi" and "
Gestapo" and said they were worse than the mafia. He also accused Nir Hafetz and
Gideon Saar of various crimes.[34]
In May 2020, the far-right politician and
Alternative for Germany (AfD) member Joachim Kuh used a quote from Netanyahu in his campaign graphics. Following this, Netanyahu urged the AfD to work towards stopping German funding for NGOs operating in Israel.[35]
In November 2020, Netanyahu launched his own right-wing
podcast called The Yair Netanyahu Show, with episodes in both English and Hebrew.[36] His first guest was Brazilian politician
Eduardo Bolsonaro, the third son of Brazilian President
Jair Bolsonaro.[37]
Controversy
In January 2018, a scandal erupted when a recording of Netanyahu's visit to a
Tel Aviv strip club in 2015 was leaked. In the recording, Netanyahu discussed strippers and referred to a controversial gas deal recently passed into law.[38][39] Netanyahu apologized for his remarks.[40] He filed a lawsuit for 1 million
NIS ($272,000) against his driver, who allegedly recorded the conversation,[41] and eventually compromised for 30,000 NIS.[42]
On 7 July 2019, he won a libel suit against
Israeli Labor Party activist Abie Binyamin for claiming that Netanyahu was hiding millions in
offshore accounts.[43]
In November 2019, Netanyahu was sued for slander after sharing a Facebook post claiming that former
Walla news site editor Avi Alkalay was a plant for the
Wexner Foundation.[44] In February 2020, he was ordered to pay damages and legal costs totalling $81,000.[45][46] Netanyahu appealed the decision, but his appeal was rejected by the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court in July 2021.[47]
During the
2023 Israel-Hamas War it was reported that Netanyahu was living in Florida, while fellow countrymen living abroad returned to Israel in numbers to serve in the army.[48]
^"חידון המרקרים: הציטוטים של יאיר נתניהו" [TheMarker Quiz: Yair Netanyahu's quotes - and the relationship between them and the truth], TheMarker (in Hebrew),
Haaretz, 28 January 2021, retrieved 14 March 2024, את כל הפלטפורמות הללו הוא מתעל בין היתר לטובת הפצת שקרים, הכפשות והשמצות כלפי מי שנתפש בעיניו כאויב של המחנה בראשו עומד אביו.
Kaiser, Jonas; Rauchfleisch, Adrian; Bourassa, Nikki (15 March 2020). "Connecting the (Far-)Right Dots: A Topic Modeling and Hyperlink Analysis of (Far-)Right Media Coverage during the US Elections 2016". Digital Journalism. 8 (3).
Routledge: 422–441.
doi:
10.1080/21670811.2019.1682629.
S2CID211434599.