Political rivals accused Israeli prime ministerial candidate Ehud Barak of ethnic discrimination Sunday, after an Israeli entertainer referred to Likud voters as “riff-raff” at a gathering in support of the Labor leader. Barak called the remark “utter nonsense” and demanded a public apology from the actress, Tiki Dayan. He also accused political foes of trying to seize upon the incident in order to divert public attention from his campaign’s real issues, which he described as the “serious problems generated by” the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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