Netanyahu Talks About "Serious Breach of Censorship" and Reveals: Sara Was in the UAE Too

Tel Aviv - Afaq News - The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday evening that the Israeli Security Agency "Shabak" has filed a complaint with military censorship demanding action against Channel "12", claiming it committed a "serious breach of censorship" after it published information about Netanyahu's visit to the UAE and his meeting with Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed, before his plane landed in Israel.

In an unusual move, the Prime Minister's office included in its statement remarks from "Shabak" and the "Mossad", which described the publication of the information as a "serious security threat" to the Prime Minister and the accompanying delegation members.

For the first time, Netanyahu's office revealed the list of participants in the visit, including Netanyahu and his wife Sara, along with the head of the "Mossad", the head of the National Security Council, Major General Guy Markizano, the military secretary, and the head of security at "Shabak", in addition to the aircraft and security teams.

The Prime Minister's office stated that the publication of Channel "12" regarding the details of the visit "endangered their lives".

The complaint focuses on the timing of the news release, as the channel published it at 21:38, while the plane landed in Israel at 22:27.

According to Netanyahu's office, the "Shabak" stated that "the publication of the visit at the stage it was released exposed the security of the Prime Minister, the operation, and the forces on the ground to danger," adding that the publication of the visit's details and the way it was carried out "revealed the methods of operation of the agency, increasing the level of risks facing future operations.","

The Prime Minister's office also conveyed what it said were "assessments from Mossad regarding the severity of the damage caused by the publication by Channel 12," stating that "this leak posed a serious security threat to the Prime Minister and the delegation," calling for the publication of the information to be considered "a serious event that harms the security of the State of Israel."

In contrast, officials from Channel 12 News stated that the information related to the secret visit was "political, and at a dramatic timing before the elections, amid the controversy over the warning that was conveyed to Israel before the October 7 attack," considering that it could not be withheld from the Israeli public under the pretext of censorship.

They added that "censorship does not concern itself with preventing the publication of political news," emphasizing that the news was not broadcast at the beginning of the bulletin, but rather around ten o'clock in the evening, when the Prime Minister's plane had already arrived in Israel, and that this was mentioned during the broadcast, thus, according to the channel, there was no danger to the lives of the participants.

The Associated Press reported that Netanyahu requested during his meeting with Mohammed bin Zayed to deny reports that the Emirati president warned him before October 7.

The UAE has not issued a denial in this regard so far.

In addition, the meeting focused, according to the report, on the Iranian threat and the American efforts to form a coalition against the Islamic Republic.