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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked his acting chief of staff to remain in his post after accepting the aide's apology for a series of leaked remarks in which he called Moroccan Jewish lawmakers "baboons" and a "retarded Moroccan," a scandal that briefly appeared to end the official's career before Netanyahu moved to keep him in place.
Netanyahu issued a statement Sunday saying he had accepted the apology of Ziv Agmon, his spokesman and acting chief of staff, and wanted him to stay until a replacement could be found.
"The remarks attributed to him should not have been said, and it is good that a clear apology was issued for them," Netanyahu said. He urged the public to move on: "Now the responsibility of all of us is to put this matter behind us and move forward together, for the sake of Israel's security and the unity of the people."
The prime minister had not publicly criticized Agmon when the story first broke, nor called for his dismissal, despite an outcry that swept across party lines.
The scandal erupted on March 25 when Israeli journalist Amit Segal reported on Channel 12 that Agmon had made a string of derogatory remarks about Mizrahi Jews, the term for Israeli Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent who form a core constituency of Netanyahu's Likud party.
According to Segal's reporting, Agmon wrote that it was "not good that Morocco was opened for Israeli tourism, now we know where our Moroccans came from, from Africa," adding that "a baboon is a monkey."
He referred to Likud MK Nissim Vaturi as "a baboon," called fellow Likud member MK Eliyahu Revivo "a retarded Moroccan," and questioned how "these people get elected to the Knesset."
A third Likud lawmaker, MK Eli Dallal, was dismissed as "a clown" and a "nobody." The remarks were said to have come from private conversations, with no audio recordings released.
The leaked material went beyond the ethnic slurs. Agmon was also reported to have said that Netanyahu was "finished" following Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack, declaring that "he must go home." He mocked the prime minister's 2022 fainting episode and criticized members of Netanyahu's own family, including his wife Sara and son Yair, over alleged personal expenses and a diplomatic passport.
Agmon resigned the day the story broke, but his statement was notable for how little ground he conceded. He acknowledged the quotes were real but insisted they were pulled from private conversations held largely before he entered the prime minister's office, and characterized their release as a "character assassination."
He denied holding racist views, citing his own family's Moroccan roots as evidence that allegations of racism were "ridiculous." He apologized to anyone hurt by the remarks while stopping short of a full retraction, and signed off his statement with praise for Netanyahu and Sara Netanyahu.
Netanyahu did not issue any public condemnation of Agmon at the time. Multiple Hebrew-language outlets reported the prime minister had been expected to fire him, but no such move came from the office itself.
The broader political fallout was swift. Revivo, one of the targeted lawmakers, wrote that someone who speaks that way "simply said out loud what he truly thinks in his heart," adding that such a person is "not fit to serve the public in any capacity for even one more minute."
Justice Minister Yariv Levin said "there is no place for racism" in Israel or the Likud movement. Coalition whip Ofir Katz said Agmon's statements did not represent Netanyahu's positions and that "anyone who dares to speak in this way has no place in the Likud." Energy Minister Eli Cohen called for unequivocal condemnation.
The incident cuts at a long-standing tension within the Likud. Mizrahi Jews, those with roots in North African and Middle Eastern countries, including Morocco, Iraq, and Yemen, have formed the demographic backbone of Likud's electoral coalition for decades.
It was Mizrahi voters who powered Likud's historic 1977 victory, known as the Mahapach, ending nearly three decades of Labor dominance. Despite this, the party has never had a leader of Mizrahi descent. Netanyahu, who is Ashkenazi, has led Likud for most of the past three decades.
Agmon, who had been on a fast track to the chief of staff role, had taken the acting position after his predecessor left the post amid corruption allegations.
By accepting the apology and asking Agmon to stay, Netanyahu drew a line under the episode on his own terms, without having demanded the resignation himself, without publicly rebuking his aide, and without explaining why the apology was sufficient.
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