Lapid: ‘Yediot’ fired my wife for fear of Netanyahu

“I still have trouble believing that Lihi [Lapid] was fired just because she’s my wife, but these are the times that we live in,” Lapid said.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and his wife Lihi kiss at a women's committee convention in Tel Aviv (photo credit: REUTERS)
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and his wife Lihi kiss at a women's committee convention in Tel Aviv
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Blue and White co-leader MK Yair Lapid implied that Yediot Aharonot fired his wife on Saturday from writing her weekly column because of pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office.
“I still have trouble believing that Lihi [Lapid] was fired just because she’s my wife, but these are the times that we live in,” Lapid said. “This is part of the attack on all the values that seemed obvious to us in the past. It’s part of the campaign against us that crossed all lines."
“We are strong and have love and will stand up to any attack, but this is what happens when a newspaper starts to fear the government,” he added.
Yediot, however, denied that Lapid was fired and said no final decision had been made. They added that her editor mentioned that her involvement in Blue and White’s election campaign had been “problematic.”
Lihi Lapid wrote on Facebook on Saturday: “I was fired. After 15 years, I was fired from Yediot Aharonot on a phone call, because of my husband.”
Lapid’s weekly column was mostly personal, relating to family, friends and the occasional recipe. She did not write about politics.
“I don’t think it’s a problem that I write a personal column for women in the newspaper, even if my husband is a politician,” she wrote. “And I mostly don’t think that in 2019 in the State of Israel, a person can be fired because of her partner."
“I’m proud to be Yair’s wife, but I’m not just his wife. I’m also me. I’m a working woman. I gave my soul to writing. I was only loyal to the readers. I revealed my feelings and my thoughts in the column… I checked facts, I took the photos that appeared in it, I answered every email and every letter I received from my readers and now I was fired just because of my husband,” Lapid wrote.