Yair Netanyahu apologized Tuesday to Wexner Fund alumni for posts he said were “offensive, untrue, and inappropriate” and promised not to repeat them.
The apology came after 74 Harvard University graduates who were funded by the Wexner Fund sued him for libel. Netanyahu had erased the posts.
He called on others who insulted Wexner fellows online to remove their posts.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit issued a statement on Tuesday, saying: “Yair Netanyahu published and distributed fundamentally awful lies using extreme language and engaged in mudslinging against the public service of every graduate of the program.”
The plaintiffs said Yair Netanyahu had caused them significant damage.
“From now on, all those who publish lies and incitement against public servants on social media will know that they will be brought to justice,” they said. “This will cause them to rethink their words before they publish them and not after a lawsuit is issued. We will not hesitate to file additional lawsuits against anyone who continues to distribute lies against us.”
The lawsuit, filed in the Herzliya Magistrate’s Court, complained about Netanyahu calling the approximately 500 Wexner graduates a “cult of pedophiles” on Twitter and demanding legislation that would ban any of the graduates of the fellowship from serving in Israel’s civil service.
“What was written was not coincidental and was intended to advance the interests of the defendant and portray the graduates to the public as unfit for public service and as people trying to overthrow the government,” the lawsuit states. “Severe damage was done to the good name of all the graduates who earned good reputations through years of public service.”
The graduates who filed the lawsuit include prominent IDF officers, lawyers, doctors and journalists. The list includes former state prosecutor Moshe Lador, former Military Intelligence chief Maj-Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin, Maj-Gen. (ret.) Noam Tibon, Col. (ret.) Eran Lerman, Channel 13 defense analyst Alon Ben-David and Alyn Hospital Director-General Dr. Maurit Beeri.
Netanyahu called the graduates a cult of pedophiles because notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein used to be a business associate of Wexner Foundation founder Leslie Wexner. He never gave money to the foundation or managed its operations, but he did hold an administrative role confined to transferring money from the Wexner family to the foundation until the family cut off ties after the state attorney drafted its indictment against him.
The fellowship was started over 30 years ago when Wexner, an ardent Zionist, expanded his foundation’s goals to include fostering excellence in Israel’s public sector. One of the Wexner Foundation’s programs is the Israel Fellowship, which each year sends 10 outstanding public-sector directors and leaders from Israel for a master’s degree in public administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Before filing the lawsuit, the graduates asked Netanyahu to apologize to them on social media, but he refused. They asked him to refute what he wrote, admit that it was baseless and harmful and ask those who shared his tweets to remove them. When he declined, the request was added to the lawsuit.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.