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Doron Ashkenazi

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Celebrity's Relative

The Resume

    (1957-April 7, 2001)
    Born in Israel
    Tel Aviv-based businessman, building contractor
    Widower of Israeli pop singer Ofra Haza
    Strongly believed to have infected Haza with HIV, leading to the singer's untimely death from AIDS, in 2000
    Later died from an overdose of crystallized cocaine at his home in Herzliya

Why he might be annoying:

    He was revealed to have pressured Ofra into having an abortion after she became pregnant with their child.
    His advancements onto Ofra were usually unwelcome ones, and he had to bribe her cousin to act as their 'yente.'
    Haza's decision to marry him was widely believed to have been her succumbing to familial pressure (at nearly forty, they felt she was overdue to be married).
    He insisted on arriving to his wedding with Haza in a horse-drawn carriage accompanied by hundreds of her fans.
    He willfully hid his history of drug use from Ofra before marrying her (it remains unclear as to whether he also knew he was infected with AIDS at this time).
    When they were married, he exhibited a stringent control over her; forcing her to fire her manager, leave her native Yehud, and forbidding her from visiting family/friends.
    While his wife was dying of AIDS, he made her sign the deed to her Yehud home over to him. He also emptied her bank account on the day of her death.
    Following his wife's death, he engaged in a bitter, drawn-out battle with Haza's family and Aloni over her estate, tellingly surrounding himself with lawyers after the news broke.
    While accusations were traded on both sides, Haza's family was convinced that Ashkenazi was responsible for transmitting the disease to her.
    Within a year of the death, court complaints had steadily mounted calling for an investigation as to whether or not he had either infected or deliberately poisoned his wife. His death put a halt to any such plans.
    The night of his death, he had declined to celebrate Seder with his family, claiming to still be in mourning. He spent the doing crystal meth with friends at his house, instead.
    When asked for a comment, Bezalel Aloni told the press: 'I said a year ago that this man was to blame... His death only serves to emphasize how tragic and futile Ofra's death was. [He] was the first and last man in her life, and that's terrible.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    The Israeli public's continued distaste for his name rivals the contempt they have for Yigal Amir.
    He left behind two children from a previous marriage.
    He was allegedly the first man that Ofra Haza had ever slept with.
    Little is known about his personal or private life prior to his coming into Haza's life.
    Even the date of his birth remains unclear (its usually pinpointed around the year 1957, but no documentation confirms the exact date).
    Israel's leading newspapers famously competed in sensationalism of Ofra Haza's death (in other words some stories about his veered toward exaggeration).
    Bezalel Aloni's memoir on Haza, 'Mikhtavim l'ofra' ('Letters to Ofra'), has been called a searing indictment of Ashkenazi.
    He had vehemently denied infecting his wife with AIDS, promising to take an AIDS test and reveal the results to the public (he died before having the chance to do so).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 10 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 8 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 71.43% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 27 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 17 Votes: 70.59% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 16 Votes: 81.25% Annoying