Council member tells court she was pressed to resign in 'manipulative' call

Two days before a Supreme Court hearing, Dr. Marlin Wenig, a member of the Second Authority Council, filed an unusual affidavit alleging that she was pressured to resign from the outgoing council. Wenig, an ultra-Orthodox woman, said Elad Zamir, chief of staff to Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, called her on May 28, 2026 and urged her to quit, in what she described as a conversation conducted with a “manipulative nuance” to show her the benefits of resigning.

Wenig said she told Zamir she could not do that to council chair Mordechai Mordechai, whom she respects, and made clear that if the council was asked to return she would stay. She said Zamir kept pressing the point and emphasized that the minister had extended her term. She asked for time to think and consult, then decided not to resign and informed Zamir, who, she said, accepted her decision.

Later, after receiving what she called an “hostile WhatsApp message” from one participant in a council meeting and speaking with members of the outgoing and incoming councils, she decided to resign from both councils “for the sake of peace of mind.” The next day, she said, she learned the full scale of the other members’ resignations and feared she had unwillingly become part of a plan to remove the outgoing council. She then asked to withdraw her resignation, writing to Mordechai that she was concerned about the public consequences and wanted to return because she is “not a political appointee of any side” and feels committed to the broader public interest. According to her, the request was rejected by the minister.

Other council members who resigned in the collective move filed similar affidavits and letters, all signed before the same lawyer, David Pechter. Most did not deny that people on behalf of Karhi contacted them about resigning, but said they had made the decision independently. Karhi told the High Court that he did call on all outgoing council members to resign, arguing that it is improper for public representatives to force themselves on the public after their term ends and after the government has appointed a different council.

Last week, the High Court ordered several recently resigned Second Authority Council members to submit sworn statements and address whether the minister or anyone on his behalf had asked them to resign. The court is examining claims that the mass resignations were intended to paralyze the council and bypass an interim order keeping the previous council in office. The government appointed a new council about two months ago, including chair Yifat Ben-Hai Segev and media figures Kinneret Barashi and Haim Shain, but five petitions froze its work and left Mordechai’s previous council in place until a ruling. One major pending issue is approval of the sale of Channel 13 to a philanthropic fund backed by high-tech investors, with the channel reportedly fearing the new council would delay or derail the deal.