The Prime Minister and his wife celebrated legal victory Sunday, after a Tel Aviv court ruled in favor of the couple’s lawsuit against an Israeli journalist who wrote a defamatory Facebook post about Netanyahu and his wife last year.
The journalist, Yigal Sarna, wrote in March 2016 that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife had quarreled during a drive accompanied by the state motorcade on Highway 1, the primary Jerusalem-Tel Aviv traffic artery, and that Sara Netanyahu had thrown her husband out of the car at one point, forcing the entire motorcade to halt and collect the Prime Minister.
The court ruled that Sarna’s comments were false and damaging to the Prime Minister and his wife, and ordered him to compensate the Netanyahus to the tune of 100,000 shekels ($28,300), plus an additional 15,000 shekels ($4,244) to cover the Netanyahus’ legal fees.
“Truth and justice prevailed today against the unending witch-hunt against me, against my wife, and against my family for the past 20 years,” the Prime Minister wrote on Facebook Sunday afternoon.
“If we sued everyone who defamed us, we would be in court every single day. But I have a state to run, and my wife is busy with public activities and works as an educational psychologist for the Jerusalem Municipal Service.”
“In one of the few cases where we found the time to defend our good name and to file a lawsuit against the lies being publicized against us, the court… ruled in favor of truth.”
Sarna, known for his intense dislike of Netanyahu, condemned the court’s decision, saying it reflected “dark times” for Israeli democracy.
“The ruling was to be expected in these dark times,” said Sarna, pledging to continue the “resistance” against the censorship he claimed was now stifling Israeli journalism.