Beni Ziffer, a veteran journalist, author and former culture and literature editor at the Israeli daily Haaretz, has been dismissed from the newspaper after several decades on staff.
Speaking this morning with broadcaster Sharon Gal on Radio Galei Yisrael, Ziffer addressed his departure and characterized it as part of a broader pattern within the organization. "There's a wave of firings and purges every few years, and now it landed on me," he said. "I've received amazing and heartwarming responses. It's a sign that I did good work, so it doesn't seem entirely fair to me. But that's how it works."
When Gal asked whether he had sensed a shift in how colleagues treated him after he publicly revealed his close and warm relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara—a notable departure from his earlier left-wing political alignment, he responded candidly. "After I switched sides, there were some hardcore haters who would make nasty comments every time I passed by," he said.
Asked to elaborate on the nature of these remarks, he recounted a particularly difficult incident that occurred in his wife's presence. "Comments about Sara, as if I'm doing all kinds of unseemly things for her. Real crudeness," he said. "One time my wife was with me, and from the room, I don't want to name names, they started throwing comments at me. My wife was shocked that I accepted this. I told her: 'Yes, I got used to it.'"
