Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli said Wednesday that the Qatargate affair must be fully investigated, in what appeared to be the first time a minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has publicly backed the ongoing probe into allegations that the premier’s top aides acted as paid lobbyists for Qatar, where Hamas’s leadership is based.

In an interview with Kan news, Chikli said, “There is no way to defend this – it’s shocking. These matters must be investigated to the fullest.”

Former spokesperson for the prime minister Eli Feldstein and top Netanyahu adviser Jonathan Urich are alleged to have worked on behalf of Qatar while they were in Netanyahu’s employ for the Perception PR firm headed by Yisrael Einhorn, Netanyahu’s former campaign manager.

Einhorn and Perception are believed to have conducted campaigns in Israel and abroad to boost Qatar’s image, particularly in connection with its role as a mediator in last year’s hostage talks.

Last week, i24News published what it said were the contents of text conversations between Feldstein and Einhorn, in which they made up pro-Qatar messages that were presented to journalists as if they were coming from senior Israeli and........

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