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A prominent British-born Israeli government spokesman has been suspended from his role after an online spat with the UK foreign secretary David Cameron over humanitarian aid to war-torn Gaza.
Eylon Levy had responded to a post by Cameron on the social media platform X this month, in which the foreign secretary appeared to criticise Israel for not facilitating the entry of enough aid trucks into Gaza.
“I hope you are also aware there are NO limits on the entry of food, water, medicine, or shelter equipment into Gaza, and in fact the crossings have EXCESS capacity,” Levy wrote in a since-deleted post on March 8. “Test us. Send another 100 trucks a day to Kerem Shalom [crossing] and we’ll get them in.”
It was the second such instance in as many days where Levy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s English-language spokesperson, responded directly to Cameron on X.
After the second post, the UK embassy in Tel Aviv contacted the Israeli prime minister’s office seeking clarification as to whether the messages were official government policy or Levy’s independent personal opinion, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“Is this the way allies speak to each other?” the person characterised the British query.
The Israeli prime minister’s office has since suspended Levy from his duties, with his return date uncertain. The British government did not seek Levy’s termination, according to the person familiar with the matter.
Levy, 32, born in London to Israeli parents before immigrating to Israel a decade ago, has become a prominent figure across the international news media as well as inside Israel. He has appeared on the cover of Hebrew-language magazines and as a character in the Israeli satirical show Eretz Nehederet.
He is a graduate of the same Oxford university college as former British prime minister Cameron, and previously served in the Israeli military unit responsible for civilian affairs in the occupied Palestinian Territories. He has also been a journalist and translator, as well as media adviser to Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.
Levy volunteered as a government spokesperson explaining Israel’s position to the world in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. He did this despite spending most of the past year publicly demonstrating against plans by the Netanyahu government to overhaul the country’s judiciary.
A report on Israel’s Channel 12 news in January suggested there was opposition inside Netanyahu’s bureau to Levy’s growing profile, and that high-powered individuals were seeking to oust Levy.
Netanyahu has lamented the ineffectiveness of Israeli public diplomacy, with international criticism growing from even friendly governments over the loss of life and humanitarian crisis inside Gaza.
“There simply are no people, you are surrounded by people who can’t put two words together [in English]. We need to find them,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying at a closed-door parliamentary committee hearing on Tuesday.
The Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment on Levy’s suspension. Levy declined to comment.