Nimrod Shapira apologized, saying 'this is not the spirit I want to bring to politics,' according to journalist Amit Segal (N12). The apology follows earlier remarks apparently made by the political figure.
Tuesday 22:06 Jerusalem — The story of the smear campaign inside the Democrats party primaries took a new turn Tuesday evening when candidate Nimrod Shapira issued a personal apology. Journalist Amit Segal (N12) reported Shapira as saying, 'I apologize. This is not the spirit I want to bring to politics.' The apology came hours after Segal's earlier report, also at 21:10 Jerusalem, that Shapira admitted his own campaign team had sent text messages disparaging him, and that he had apologized directly to rival Ronen Tzor.
Segal's initial report at 21:10 Jerusalem stated that Shapira's campaign staff had sent thousands of text messages disparaging the candidate himself, apparently to make voters think rival Ronen Tzor was behind the smear. That version identified the candidate as 'Shachar Shapir.' A subsequent version, also at 21:10 Jerusalem, corrected the name to 'Nimrod Shapir' and confirmed the campaign allegedly aimed to frame Tzor. The third bulletin at 21:10 Jerusalem reported Shapira's admission and apology to Tzor, including the quote now repeated in the latest update. The Zioneer's thread of three bulletins shows a single source — Amit Segal (N12) — throughout, without independent corroboration from other newsrooms or on-record statements from the party.
As The Zioneer reported on Tuesday 21:10 Jerusalem, party regulations reportedly allow expulsion for false propaganda, a standard the report framed as a test for party leader Yair Golan. No party official has yet confirmed any disciplinary process.
What remains open: All three bulletins citing Amit Segal (N12) as the sole source. No party statement or independent verification has been published. The mechanism by which the messages were sent, the number of messages, and the timeline of Shapira's decision to apologize are not detailed in the reporting. An earlier version of the bulletin mistakenly named the candidate 'Shachar Shapir'; all versions now use 'Nimrod Shapir/Shapira.'
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Source and signal
- Internal intake