On Monday singer and rapper Muki replaced singer Eyal Golan as a celebrity judge on the TV show "Rising Star" after Golan was implicated in criminal investigations involving sexual relations with minors.
But barely a day passed before the newest judge himself became the focus of controversy, with inflammatory comments he made in 2005 surfacing, in which he said of Jews who were then being deported from Gush Katif in Gaza that: "we need to break their bones."
Surrounding the "disengagement," whereby Jewish residents of Gaza, along with four communities in northern Samaria (Shomron) were forcibly uprooted from their homes, Muki gave an interview to a Tel Aviv student newspaper in May 2005, as reported by Yedioth Aharonoth.
Muki called the Jewish residents "sh**s" in the interview, saying they "threaten a civil war and violence."
He suggested two days of military lockdown, saying "we need to give it to them, to break their bones, load them into trucks, throw them into a corner somewhere and shut their mouths."
Regarding talk by the Supreme Court to compensate Gush Katif residents for their destroyed homes and property, Muki attacked the judge, saying "who are you at all? ...Why do I, I (!) have to pay them? What happened?"
On his first appearance as judge on the TV show Monday Muki turned his vitriolic style on the young singing contestants, delivering harsh criticism according to Mako.
However his attacks were not reserved only for the contestants.
After fellow judge Rani Rahav stood up to clap for a contestant, Muki told him "now sit!" Rita, also on the panel of judges, reproached him saying "you came here very arrogant, bringing an unpleasant energy to the table and acting like a hooligan. You can't talk to Rani like that, he's older than you."
After the show, Muki said "I'll stick to my truth till the end."
The singer's abrasive style has already offended viewers, with one talkbacker writing afterwards that Muki's appearance on the show was "disgusting," adding "who does he think he is to talk like that to the children that come to sing and enjoy? If he stays on the show I'll stop watching it."