Binyamin Netanyahu
Binyamin NetanyahuEsti Dzubov/TPS

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded on Sunday afternoon to remarks by Noa Rothman, granddaughter of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who accused a spokeswoman at the Prime Minister's Office of publishing a picture of her grandfather with former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat with the word “traitor”.

Rothman was actually referring to a tweet by Jerusalem Post writer Caroline Glick, who had shared an image depicting various Israeli leaders. The words “we have betrayed you” were written above a photo of Rabin and Arafat shaking hands at the White House in 1993.

"To my amazement, I heard there today that a spokeswoman at the Prime Minister's Office published a post in which Rabin's handshake with Arafat appeared with the word ‘traitor’. Needless to say, it was also claimed that the woman continues to receive a salary from taxpayers," said Netanyahu at the Knesset special session in memory of Rabin.

"I was amazed because I did not believe that such a thing happened, and I asked that it be looked into, and it indeed turned out that it was not true. It's a tweet by a journalist who does not get paid by us. I renounce this tweet. This is an example of how sometimes, during the struggle against incitement, they say offensive and baseless things, not only about me, but about an entire public," continued the Prime Minister.

Netanyahu added that "the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin is a historic trauma to the people of Israel.”

The Prime Minister reiterated that although he did not agree with Rabin's way, "I said that he was wrong - and not a traitor. Rabin was not a traitor, he was a top Zionist patriot."