Yediot Ahronot
Yediot AhronotPhoto by Maxim Dinshtein/Flash90

Actress Mika Almog, the granddaughter of the late Israeli politician and ninth President of Israel, Shimon Peres, was fired from her position at Yediot Aharonot after eight years of writing a weekly column for the newspaper.

Almog announced the news on her Facebook account: "And the news - first things first: I was fired from Yediot Aharonot. The explanation given was editorial considerations - 'the paper is changing' - and it's hard to argue with this explanation. The paper is indeed changing."

''So I'm not arguing. After almost eight years of a weekly column, I'm making time during the week and room in my head for new things, and also for several people who have already have been waiting quite a while for the day when I won't have a weekly deadline. I'll be able to stop the sprints and dedicate myself to the marathon."

Almog thanked her readers and the newspaper staff. Regarding the changes at Yediot Aharonot, Almog claimed that this is a "wide-ranging process, of which the cancellation of my column is only a small part of - it's important for me to be clear that I stand behind every word I've written and said - in the newspaper and outside of it."

"My words were written and said with a full understanding of their possible implications. I accepted the price in advance. Because the price you pay for telling the truth is nothing compared to the price you pay for remaining silent."

The editor-in-chief of Yediot Aharonot, Neta Livneh, referred to the discontinuation of Almog's column and made it clear that it was not connected to Almog's left-wing positions. Livneh said that the paper is simply being refreshed with a new look and content. "Since I've been the editor of the paper, it's been printed in the same format."

''In one case, I moved a column about the Palestinian Memorial Day to the opinion section," Livneh added. "That's not silencing, that's editing. That's the difference between a Facebook page or someone's private Twitter account. In Yediot Aharonot, commentators from across the political spectrum have written, currently write and will continue to write columns."