Allegations that a close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carried out public relations work for Qatar during the war with Hamas require an investigation of possible treason, including a probe of the premier himself, Democrats chairman Yair Golan urged Thursday.
“There is a suspicion of treason in the Prime Minister’s Office that must be investigated,” Golan declared at a Tel Aviv press conference he called on the matter.
“All of the Prime Minister’s Office staff who were in contact with Qatar must be immediately investigated. And Netanyahu himself must be investigated,” he insisted.
Netanyahu’s Likud party called the remarks “incitement.”
According to a report aired Monday by Channel 12 news, Eli Feldstein, a former military spokesman for the prime minister, was employed by a Qatar-funded company to improve public perception of Doha surrounding the Gulf country’s role in mediating a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.
Qatar, which has been a prime funder of Hamas, was a mediator in the talks along with the US and Egypt.
Feldstein is also a key suspect in a scandal surrounding the leak of classified IDF documents related to the war.
Channel 12’s report revealed “apparent evidence of a business, financial, and personal connection between the Prime Minister’s Office and an enemy state before and during the war,” Golan alleged.
Qatar is not designated an enemy of Israel, but the countries have no official relations, and Doha has long hosted leaders of Hamas in its territory and has supported the terror group financially.
“Netanyahu’s closest advisers — people from the most important office in the State of Israel — allegedly received payments, maintained connections and did business with the state that funded Hamas,” he said, calling on the Shin Bet security service and Attorney General’s Office to open a criminal investigation for alleged treason.
“Qatar not only financed Hamas — it also provided its senior figures, such as Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal with sanctuary. Qatar is the one that provides political, diplomatic, and economic backing to the most murderous terrorist organization that Israel has ever faced,” Golan said. “This is a clear and immediate danger to Israel’s security.”
Everyone involved must immediately be suspended, he added.
A Likud spokesman slammed Golan’s “outrageous remarks.”
The spokesman said Golan’s “incitement” crossed a “red line” and said the left-wing politician should himself be investigated, referring to baseless internet conspiracy theories claiming that Golan was involved in espionage against Israel following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught. Golan is in fact known for rushing down south on the day of the attack and risking his life to rescue civilians from the scenes of slaughter.
Responding to Likud, Golan challenged Netanyahu “to come with me to an investigation into what each of us did on October 7.”
Echoing Golan, the Movement for Quality Government watchdog organization called for an “immediate” probe into allegations of untoward ties between the PMO and Qatar, urging Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to launch a “comprehensive investigation” into the matter.
In a statement, MFQG chairman Eliad Shraga said that it is “unthinkable that someone from the Prime Minister’s Office would act to protect the interests of a state that supports terrorism in the midst of a war. We will demand that the Shin Bet investigate this serious matter to the fullest extent.”
According to Channel 12, Feldstein held conversations with several journalists in which he presented Qatar as having a “positive role” in negotiations. It also reported that the Qatar-funded firm that employed Feldstein was working to promote contact between the families of the hostages and authorities in Doha.
The work allegedly took place at the same time that Netanyahu was publicly condemning Qatar as a backer of the Hamas terror group.
The company was not named in the report, which also did not offer a source for the allegations against Feldstein.
Feldstein was arrested in November on suspicion of leaking stolen classified intelligence information to be published in the foreign press. According to the report, Feldstein’s outside work for Qatar continued until the document leak scandal became public.
Both Feldstein’s attorneys and Netanyahu’s spokesman denied the report.
Two other Netanyahu advisers — Jonatan Urich and Yisrael Einhorn — were reported last year to be involved in a campaign to improve Qatar’s image surrounding hosting the 2022 World Cup.
Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Qatar, but the two countries established trade relations in 1996 which lasted until 2009, when Doha severed them due to a previous round of fighting between Israel and Gaza.
Speaking with Channel 12 on Wednesday, Udi Levy, a former senior Mossad official, claimed that “the Qatari circle of influence is much larger than the three people in the Prime Minister’s Office.”
Levy stated that a senior official in the PMO approached an Israeli attorney, asking him to represent Qatar in a lawsuit filed by families of terror victims.
The PMO told Channel 12 that “no one in the Prime Minister’s Office received permission to offer Qatar an Israeli lawyer to represent it against Israeli claims.”
The leak allegations against Feldstein and Ari Rosenfeld, a reserves IDF noncommissioned officer in the Military Intelligence Directorate, are at the heart of a scandal at the Prime Minister’s Office in which a highly classified document, ostensibly detailing Hamas’s priorities and tactics in hostage negotiations, was unlawfully removed from the IDF’s military intelligence database and leaked to Germany’s Bild newspaper.
The affair centers around what prosecutors say were efforts to sway public opinion surrounding the negotiations for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in a direction more favorable for Netanyahu, days after six hostages were murdered by the terror group last August.
Feldstein stands accused of transferring classified information with the intent to harm state security, a charge that can carry a sentence of life in prison, as well as illicit possession of classified information and obstruction of justice.