Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman and acting chief of staff Ziv Agmon announced Wednesday that he is stepping down, a day after racist comments he made against Mizrahi Jews and attacks on Netanyahu himself were revealed, Report informs via The Times of Israel.
In a statement released by Netanyahu's office, Agmon acknowledged that the quotes are real, but claimed that they were taken out of context.
"Over the past week, a person with whom I had a long-standing friendly relationship decided to pass on partial quotes from our private conversations," Agmon said. "The vast majority of these conversations took place even before I entered my role in the Prime Minister's Office. The quotes that were shared were taken out of context, and their sole purpose was to carry out a character assassination against me and harm the prime minister whom I serve."
Agmon said the reports about him do not represent him or his values, and that allegations of racism against Jews of Moroccan origin are "ridiculous in light of the fact that my immediate family has Moroccan roots."
"The attempt to take fragments of sentences from personal and private conversations - most of them from years ago - make them public, and present them as current and official positions of the speaker must be condemned," he said, while apologizing to anyone who was hurt by the statements.
Agmon said that he joined Netanyahu's office to serve behind the scenes, but since he is now in the limelight and "a divisive public discourse had formed around me," he informed Netanyahu that he was stepping down from his role.