Army Radio's film critic Gidi Orsher on Sunday night apologized for a controversial Facebook post he published two months ago and which resulted in his being suspended from the station.
In that post, Orsher came out against the "professional whiners from the East," ostensibly referring to Jews of Middle Eastern descent. He was widely criticized for the post by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as well as other ministers and MKs.
In his latest post, he wrote that he intended to apologize and stressed, "I did not at all intend to butt heads with Israelis of Mizrahi origin."
"I do not think so, I do not work that way, I do not teach that, and I have never written that in the 45 years I have worked as a journalist and critic, teacher and lecturer, and I'm not going to start that in my old age," stressed Orsher.
"Those who actually read the post carefully realized that the first part was written as satire and out of concern for all of society and for a unified Israeli society, which does not differentiate between Ashkenazi identity and Mizrahi identity as explained in the second part of the post,” he continued.
"I'm sorry if I offended anyone," wrote Orsher, "and I apologize to all those who understood it differently than I meant. I still firmly believe in a pluralistic, open and ethical society."
"Following the extensive coverage of the 'affair', I learned about the sensitivity of using social networks also in terms of my personal connection to the station whose fate is important to me. This is a lesson I'll carry into the future," he concluded.