Golan Condemns Candidate Who Suggested Religious Zionist Soldiers Died D

Democrats party chairman Yair Golan publicly rebuked activist Naor Narkis on Sunday after remarks made over the weekend sparked fierce backlash, calling his comments "invalid and not reflective of the party's values or my own."

The controversy erupted after Narkis, a secular activist and Democrats primary candidate for Knesset, suggested that religious Zionist soldiers fell in disproportionately high numbers during the war because they serve shorter terms under the Hesder yeshiva program rather than full military service. "If they had done full service like secular soldiers, maybe they less of them would have been killed," he said in an interview on i24NEWS.

Narkis attempted to frame the remarks as a matter of battlefield experience, comparing a soldier with eighteen months of service to one with three years. But critics were swift and unsparing. Former minister and MK Matan Kahana called the comments "despicable," writing: "How low does someone have to be to speak this way about the fighters of Religious Zionism who gave their lives on the battlefield?"

Golan, facing mounting pressure to respond, did not hold back. "Soldiers who fell defending the State of Israel do not owe anyone an apology," he told Ynet. "On the battlefield there are no sectors. There are no Hesder soldiers, kibbutzniks, or city kids. There are IDF fighters."

He added that any attempt to link political debate to the sacrifice of fallen soldiers is "invalid," and that debates over Israeli society's character must be conducted "outside the cemeteries."

Narkis, who has built his public profile around secular activism and online attacks on the religious community, is expected to compete in the Democrats' upcoming Knesset primaries. His remarks have raised serious questions about whether his candidacy is tenable.