Actress Chelli Goldenberg apologizes for her tone after live Channel 13 remarks on the occupation

Israeli actress Chelli Goldenberg, 72 by the account of IBTimes UK, said on a live Channel 13 morning program on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, that "we are occupiers" and that "a minority has the right to fight for its freedom." She then asked whether the conversation was being broadcast, said she had believed the program was on a commercial break, and later apologized to viewers for how she had expressed herself. The interview aired the day before Israel's Oct. 27 Knesset election. Clips of it spread in Israel and abroad over the following week, drawing sharp criticism from some Israelis, and support from some online users and from at least one human-rights organization's chairman abroad.

This article sets out what Goldenberg said, where the written reports of the interview differ, who responded and what they argued, and what the available coverage does not show. It is based on reporting by Israel National News, IBTimes UK, WION, Al Jazeera, Israel Hayom, Walla, Mako, Maariv, i24NEWS, Channel 14 and Ice. Most of these reports are in Hebrew; quotations from them are 567politics translations, and translations of the same Hebrew remarks differ slightly between outlets. We read the written reports and did not review the full broadcast video.

What was said on air

Goldenberg appeared on "Potchim Yom" ("Opening the Day"), hosted by Elad Zohar and Yarden Harel. According to IBTimes UK, the hosts had invited her to talk about her career and a new film, "Probability of Love." The conversation turned political when she spoke about national pride. "I want to be, but I no longer feel proud to be Israeli," she said, as quoted by WION. When a host warned that this was a dangerous thing to say on television, she answered: "I'm not saying it on air. I'm saying it quietly."

She tied the feeling to the occupation. IBTimes UK quoted her as saying: "I was born in 1954, and even after 1967, it took ten years to understand the sin of the occupation. It didn't happen overnight." Israel National News quoted her as saying: "We are occupiers. Yes. Everything that is happening now is the result of the occupation." Asked what she meant, she listed "the increasing religious influence, the settlers, Jewish terrorism, the arrogance."

Zohar then raised Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, in which IBTimes UK said about 1,200 people were killed. Goldenberg answered by pointing to apartheid-era South Africa, where, according to Walla, she said she had lived, and to the actions of Jewish underground groups during the British Mandate. "A minority has the right to fight for its freedom," she said.

Zohar replied immediately: "Not if it massacres civilians, our brothers and sisters, and our soldiers." Harel said, "I'll say, to put it mildly, that I see things differently." In Israel National News's translation, Harel called the phrase "a minority has the right to defend itself" a difficult statement; Goldenberg's words, as quoted by every outlet, were "fight for its freedom," so the two renderings differ. Zohar added that "the country is still wounded, bleeding, and grieving over what that minority that was fighting did here," and that it was too soon to speak that way, "if ever."

The outlets also differ on how Zohar's follow-up question was worded. Israel Hayom quoted him asking whether the right applied "even if he massacres civilians and kills babies," while Channel 14 quoted him asking about "massacring civilians and women." Channel 14 placed Goldenberg's next sentence, the one about watching "your child become something that makes you say, 'This is not how I raised you,'" directly after that question. Israel National News and Mako place the same sentence after her account of volunteer work, as part of her statement that she is "a great patriot." From the quoted passages alone, a reader cannot tell which order is right, and 567politics does not resolve it.

Goldenberg also described that volunteer work. Mako and Israel National News reported that from December 2023 until about a year before the interview she cleaned damaged homes in Nir Oz, Nahal Oz and Be'eri, communities near Gaza that were attacked on Oct. 7. In Mako's quotation she said she did this three times a week for about two years and that "no one talks about it."

Disagreement over the King David Hotel remark

Reports differ on what Goldenberg said about the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Walla quoted her as saying: "I know that Yitzhak Shamir planted a bomb at the King David Hotel when there were people there." Ice quoted her as saying that Shamir, "in Lehi, tried to blow up the King David tower." Israel Hayom wrote that she first referred to actions by Shamir, later a prime minister, against British rule in his Lehi period. Mako and Maariv described her as referring to the hotel bombing by members of the Irgun, a different underground group, without quoting the sentence.

The historical record the outlets point to is narrower than the quotations. IBTimes UK and Ice both state that the bombing was carried out by the Irgun, not Lehi. Encyclopedia.com attributes the July 22, 1946 attack, which killed 91 people, to the Irgun. A memoir account by Yehuda Lapidot, a member of the Irgun, gives the same death toll (28 Britons, 41 Arabs, 17 Jews and five others) and says the Jewish Agency denounced the attack the next day; because the page is written from the Irgun's side and quotes its own statements, we treat it as one side's account. Neither page names Shamir. Britannica says Shamir joined the Irgun, then in 1940 joined the group later known as the Stern Gang, and was arrested by the British authorities in 1941 and 1946. None of the pages we opened ties Shamir personally to the hotel bombing, and none rules out every link; we report only what they say.

"Were we on the air?" and the apology

When the hosts tried to steer the conversation back to her film work, Goldenberg asked, "Were we on the air?" After they confirmed it, she said: "We were on the air during that conversation? That's not okay. You didn't tell me we were back on the air. I thought this was an offline conversation." She added that she had told them beforehand she did not want to talk about her volunteering, and said, "I'm really in shock."

Israel Hayom, Channel 14 and IBTimes UK reported that she said she was leaving, and that the program went to an early commercial break. i24NEWS reported that she left the studio and later chose to return and apologize to viewers.

The apology, as quoted by Mako and Maariv, came near the end of the interview. "I'm a very impulsive person, with tremendous passion when I speak. I'm all fire and flames. I didn't know we were on the air," she said. She said she had expressed her views "with more passion and extremity, things I don't think I would even say to my mother and father," and that "the dosage of the drama and the sharpness of the words was excessive." She asked the hosts to "put up a flag" next time, adding of the camera's red tally light: "Here, it's red. I didn't see that it was red when we were talking."

The apology addressed her manner and the intensity of her words. None of the outlets we reviewed reported her retracting her criticism of the occupation, and IBTimes UK wrote that she emphasized her attachment to Israel. IBTimes UK also noted that her remarks were her political opinions, not established explanations of the conflict.

1. 2026-10-26Interview airs live on Channel 13; Israel Hayom, Walla and Mako publish reports the same day
2. 2026-10-26Commentator Yinon Magal posts the clip on X; a Channel 14 panel criticizes her
3. 2026-10-27Israel votes in its Knesset election; broadcaster Meni Assayag recreates her on-air reaction on Channel 14
4. 2026-10-30Al Jazeera posts a video item; IBTimes UK and WION publish English-language reports
5. 2026-10-31i24NEWS reports Al Jazeera's sharing; Mako reports the clip spread through international outlets

Source: Israel Hayom, Channel 14, IBTimes UK, Mako

Reactions in Israel

The first public criticism came the same day. Commentator Yinon Magal posted the clip on X with text, in Hebrew, saying that Goldenberg did not realize she was on the air "and justified the Oct. 7 massacre," as reproduced by IBTimes UK. Activist Yoav Eliassi, known online as "HaTzel," posted on Instagram that Goldenberg had "justified the acts of Hamas" and "said that a minority has the right to fight for its freedom," according to Channel 14, which reproduced the post. Channel 14 also headlined its own report that she "justified the Hamas massacre."

Whether the words she was quoted as saying amount to that justification is the central dispute in the coverage. No quoted passage in the reports we reviewed has Goldenberg naming Hamas, or saying that attacks on civilians are acceptable. Zohar and Harel tied her statement to Oct. 7 in their replies, and her critics did the same in their posts. Her statement that "a minority has the right to fight for its freedom" was a general one, made while she was discussing the South African and Mandate-era examples. The step from a general statement to an endorsement of a specific attack is an inference by those who made it. It is a reading of her words, not something the quoted passages state. She also did not directly answer Zohar's question about killing civilians in any passage we saw, which is why the reports leave the matter open. Maariv's own wording linked her sentence to Hamas, but it did not quote her naming the group.

On the Channel 14 panel "Yoman Tzohorayim," according to the channel, panel members said the group Goldenberg represents "simply lost contact with the mother ship," and panelist Smadar Mors warned, one day before the election, about leaders she said had lost "the compass and the connection to this land." Broadcaster Meni Assayag, whom Channel 14 described as a right-wing comedian, said on the air on Oct. 27 that Goldenberg was "embarrassing and a disgrace," then stopped and asked, "Are we on air?" Reality television personality Einav Boublil wrote in a reply, as reported by Ice: "The only thing that's not okay is that there are people like you in this country," with a vomiting emoji.

Not every reaction was hostile. WION reported that online responses were divided, with some users calling her remarks unpatriotic and others praising her for speaking openly. We did not find a named Israeli public figure or organization defending the content of her remarks in the reports we opened, and we did not search every Israeli outlet. The headlines of Israel Hayom and Channel 14 themselves describe her remarks critically.

Reaction abroad

Al Jazeera published a video item on Oct. 30 describing her as "ripping into Israel's policies towards Palestinians" without realizing she was live. According to Mako on Oct. 31, the clip was also shared by RT and Anadolu, and by pro-Palestinian activists, among them the Spanish actor Javier Bardem. Mako said the British broadcaster Piers Morgan posted it as well. These points come from Mako alone, and we could not open the posts themselves because X blocks our access.

IBTimes UK reported that Ramy Abdu, chairman of the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, shared a subtitled version describing her as a "longtime patriot," and that it passed 1.1 million views. We did not open that post either. These are voices outside Israel, and we label them separately from the Israeli reaction above.

What the coverage cannot tell us

First, the reactions above are selected posts and broadcasts, not a poll. We found no survey of Israeli opinion about the interview, her remarks or the apology, and nothing in the reports we reviewed allows a statement about what most Israelis think. Posts and views show that accounts expressed an opinion or that a clip was watched; they do not show agreement.

Second, no outlet we reviewed reported a formal consequence for Goldenberg, such as a cancellation, dismissal or legal complaint. IBTimes UK reported on Oct. 30 that Channel 13 had not publicly addressed the exchange and that the channel's own write-up of the interview that evening covered her film without mentioning it. Both points come from that one outlet. We found no public statement from Goldenberg beyond the on-air apology.

Third, some details rest on a single outlet: her age (IBTimes UK, which also said she was born in 1954), the Bardem and Morgan shares (Mako), and Channel 13's silence (IBTimes UK). We keep them attributed.

The election context

The clip circulated in the week that Israel's election produced no majority for either bloc. Our final-count report records that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc won 53 of the Knesset's 120 seats, the four-party bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot won 48, and the two Arab-led lists won 19, according to the Central Elections Committee's figures as reported by Israel National News. Turnout was 77.9%. The earlier election-night partial count and the coalition timetable cover how the count developed and what Israel's president must decide next, and the certification story covers the dispute over the foreign-funding inquiry.

None of the outlets we reviewed tied Goldenberg's remarks to turnout or to any party's result. IBTimes UK reported that one user cited the clip on election eve to urge right-wing voters to turn out, and Israel Hayom embedded a similar post. Such posts show how some people used the clip; they do not measure its effect on the vote.

What remains unknown

We do not know whether Channel 13 will comment, whether Goldenberg will say more, or whether any consequence follows. We did not verify the Magal post or the international shares directly, so we rely on IBTimes UK and Mako for their wording and counts. The full transcript of the interview is not public in the sources we saw, so we cannot say whether passages quoted in some reports but not others change the picture. We will update this story if Channel 13 or Goldenberg responds.

This AI-assisted report was prepared on Nov. 2, 2026, from the published reports linked above, each of which we opened. Our sourcing approach is described in the 567politics methodology. We report no campaign-funding figures because the story concerns a media incident and does not discuss any politician's policy or financial interests.

Photo note

The photo shows the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 2010 and is a file image; it was not taken during the Channel 13 interview or at the 1946 bombing. Photo: Mapah, original file, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped for publication.

Differing perspectives

How should Chelli Goldenberg's on-air remarks about the occupation and a minority's right to fight for freedom be understood?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Criticism rooted in patriotism

  Who holds it: Chelli Goldenberg, in her own words on the program

  Goldenberg said "everything that is happening now is the result of the occupation," and described herself as "a great patriot" who loves the country, likening her criticism to a parent saying "this is not how I raised you." She said she spent about two years cleaning homes damaged on Oct. 7. In her apology she said the drama and sharpness of her words were excessive.

  In their words: Mako (Keshet) ↗

• Her remarks justified Hamas's acts

  Who holds it: Activist Yoav Eliassi, in an Instagram post reproduced by Channel 14

  Eliassi wrote that Goldenberg declared she is not proud to be Israeli and then said a minority has the right to fight for its freedom, which he described as justifying the acts of Hamas. He said the statement left the hosts stunned, and he described her reaction on learning she was still on the air as part of the same episode.

  In their words: Channel 14 (C14), reproducing Yoav Eliassi's Instagram post ↗

• No struggle covers killing civilians

  Who holds it: Channel 13 hosts Elad Zohar and Yarden Harel

  Zohar answered on air that a minority has no such right "if it massacres civilians, our brothers and sisters, and our soldiers." Harel said she sees things differently and called the sentence difficult to hear. Zohar said the country is "still wounded, bleeding, and grieving" over what "that minority that was fighting did here," and that it was too soon to speak this way, if ever.

  In their words: Israel National News ↗

• Views reflect detachment from national values

  Who holds it: Channel 14 panelists, including Smadar Mors

  Panel members said Goldenberg represents a group that has "simply lost contact with the mother ship," with no identity, roots or tie to the people and the country. Mors said what that group lost is joy, and that its approach amounts to leaving the country instead of fighting for it or settling it. A day before the election, she said she worried about leaders who have also lost their compass.

  In their words: Channel 14 (C14), "Yoman Tzohorayim" panel report ↗