Yair Golan to sue Sara Netanyahu over publicly aired 7 October conspiracy theory

The leader of Israel’s Democratic Party has announced that he will sue Sara Netanyahu, after a television appearance by the Prime Minister’s wife in which she claimed, without evidence, that he had prior knowledge of the 7 October attacks.

Yair Golan, a former Major General and Deputy IDF Chief of Staff, told Israel’s Army Radio that he would “definitely file a lawsuit against Sara Netanyahu”.

In an interview with Israel’s pro-government Channel 14 on Sunday evening, Mrs Netanyahu said of Golan: “When you’re a military man of such high rank, claiming that you fought on October 7, already early in the morning you were there, already dressed and ready at a very, very early hour when others didn’t know, such as the prime minister… Who is the prime minister anyway to know that a war is breaking out? Why let him know?”

Yair Golan has made it repeatedly clear that when he heard the news of the mass-invasion by Hamas early in the morning of 7 October 2023, his first instinct, as a former soldier, was to put on his old uniform and travel to his former headquarters at home front command. It was there that he was issued with his old rifle, because he had no gun. He then drove south in his own car, initially responding to a message from his sister who had informed him of a group who had escaped from the Nova festival and were in hiding. He managed to locate them via a Google Maps location she had sent him. As word of his presence spread, he received messages from a number of different sources, all seeking help for loved ones who had been trapped in the vicinity, sending them their last locations. He managed to find a number of people hiding in this way, taking them to safety before returning to try and find others.

זה הסיפור האמיתי של ה-7.10. pic.twitter.com/yUeoAXCS7j

— Yair Golan – יאיר גולן (@YairGolan1) September 1, 2026

When asked why he done this, given the presence of Israeli soldiers on active duty in the area, he responded saying that the news coming in was “so unusual and sounds so bad that, you know, I cannot stay at home. And I’m still in good shape. You know, I can fight…I think the feeling was that everything collapsed. You need to do your best in order to contribute something to the overall effort.”

Israel’s Democratic Party, which Golan leads, made a statement saying it “strongly condemns the slanderous and false statements by Sara Netanyahu this evening on Channel 14. The dissemination of conspiracy theories against Major General Yair Golan, and the smearing of his heroism on October 7, constitute a crossing of a red line bordering on madness. While Netanyahu rushed to powder his face and search for excuses, Yair Golan charged forward and saved lives. The facts will not change. No matter how much the Netanyahu family and Channel 14 try to rewrite them.”

Other members of the Netanyahu family have been making increasingly bizarre statements on social media. Yair Netanyahu, the Prime Minister’s eldest son, spent much of the weekend arguing that the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory belong to Argentina; a particularly sensitive diplomatic point given the 1982 invasion of the islands by Argentina and their subsequent liberation by a British task force.

The Prime Minister himself posted a video on Monday in which he attempted to deflect blame onto others for 7 October, which happened under his premiership. He suggested that if he had been woken a few hours earlier, he would have made decisions that could have prevented Hamas from launching its full-scale invasion – and that he wasn’t woken because the security chiefs knew that he would force them to act.

שאלתם: למה לא העירו אותי ב-7 באוקטובר >> pic.twitter.com/3EnyY4Xeea

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) August 31, 2026

Golan responded to the video by saying: “Bibi – Defence Minister Gallant, senior security officials, the Chief of Staff, the Shin Bet chief, tried to wake you up and warn you dozens of times from the moment the government was sworn in [in 2022], and you didn’t wake up.

“In an interview on the Patriots program in April 2023, you referred to their warnings and said, ‘I think there’s an exaggeration in this.’ Like all those responsible for the failure, you too will be held accountable for this negligence immediately after we enter the next government. I commit!”

Last week, the Likud party published an election campaign video in which a mother receives a phone call from her child, “Yuvali”, crying about how he is being bullied at school. The camera then zooms out and shows that “Yuvali’s” mother is creating a series of anti-Netanyahu placards for a protest against the Prime Minister, the implication being that the Mr Netanyahu is being ‘bullied’ and ‘boycotted’ by critical opposition leaders.

די לחרמות, תצביעו נתניהו והליכוד! pic.twitter.com/oqf19BhhnY

— Miki Zohar מיקי זוהר (@zoharm7) August 30, 2026

Golan responded to the video, saying: “If Yuvali is responsible for the deaths of more than 2,000 Israelis in 3 years and doesn’t take responsibility, then boycott him.”