The son of former prime minister Ehud Olmert hit back at fellow son of a prime minister Yair Netanyahu and threatened to take him to court for slander in a Facebook tirade.
In a Facebook post responding to Netanyahu, who on Tuesday asked why other sons of prime ministers weren’t scrutinized, Ariel Olmert criticized Netanyahu for his lavish lifestyle and threatened to sue him for “disseminating false, racist and homophobic slurs.”
“I’ve never lived at the prime minister’s residence, I don’t have a driver or guards paid for by the state, I also don’t hang out with millionaires,” Olmert wrote. “I actually have to work for a living and I pick up my dog’s poop,” he added, referencing an incident last week in which the prime minister’s son reportedly refused to clean up after his dog.
The diatribe comes in response to a Facebook post Netanyahu wrote Monday in which he slammed his critics, complaining that other children of Israeli leaders were not subject to the same scrutiny.
In the post, Netanyahu took aim at several sons of other prime ministers, and said Olmert had “an interesting relationship with a Palestinian, that could have had national security implications,” apparently referring to rumors that Olmert had an illicit relationship with an East Jerusalem man.
The post by Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, came after a campaign called Sixty One published a post questioning why Netanyahu, 25, was living with his parents on the state’s dime.
Under the headline “5 facts about Yair Netanyahu, our national son,” the campaign, run by the dovish Molad NGO, also castigated the premier’s son for taking lavish vacations, seeking to influence his father, and encouraging the boycott of Arab-owned businesses.
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert speaks at a panel in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on January 6, 2014. (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Netanyahu accused the group of serving a radical left-wing agenda.
He accused Sixty One of being a “radical, anti-Zionist organization funded by the Foundation for the Destruction of Israel [a reference to the New Israel Fund, in a Hebrew play on words] and the European Union.”
Sixty One swiftly issued a response to Netanyahu’s post, calling on him to apologize and remove the post, or face a libel lawsuit.
