Lihi Lapid, wife of Blue and White chairman Yair Lapid, was fired from her columnist job at Yediot Aharonot after 15 years of writing a weekly column, according to a Facebook post that Lihi posted on Saturday.
"They fired me - after 15 years they fired me over the phone - because of my husband," Lapid wrote. "I told my editor that I can't believe she's firing me, and she said, 'You don't think it's problematic for you to return to the paper?'"
Lihi explained in her post that she recently took a break from her column to help her husband with his campaign before the April 9 elections and her editor now informed her that she is not welcome back.
"No, I don't think it's problematic that I write a personal column in the paper about women's issues - even if my husband is a politician. I don't think that in 2019 you can fire someone due to her partner's job. I censored what I wrote in the paper many times. I always deleted what they asked without any argument so that no one would talk."
"They didn't raise my salary in 15 years, so no one would talk. And now they fired me so that no one would talk. And I won't keep quiet. I'm proud to be Yair's wife, but I'm not just his wife. I 'm a woman with a career."
"I always wrote from the heart. I bared my thoughts and feelings in my column. I was careful with every letter I wrote, I checked the facts. I photographed the pictures in my column. I answered every email and every letter I received from my readers. And now they fired me only because of my husband," Lapid continued.
"You can't silence women because of the way they dress, their headscarves or the fact that they have opinions. I won't be silent about anyone thinking it's right to silence a woman because of her husband."
Yair Lapid responded to his wife's dismissal: "I still can't believe it. It's part of an attack on all the values that once seemed obvious to us. The campaign against us crossed all borders. This what happens when a newspaper becomes scared of the government."