A district court ruling issued Sunday morning reversed a controversial restraining order that had barred protest activist Nava Rozilio from approaching Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Judge Tamar Bar of the district court found that the original order, issued by the magistrate's court about a month ago, posed a threat of "excessive enforcement" against Rozilio. The judge emphasized that the legal measures taken could have unnecessarily infringed upon Rozilio’s rights, especially considering the context of protest and political activism.
The overturned order had prohibited Rozilio from following or tracking Sara Netanyahu, based on allegations that she had persistently monitored and posted about the Prime Minister’s wife. The magistrate court had concluded that Rozilio’s conduct supported the claim that she had been “tracking her, both personally and together with others, for a long time.”
Judge Bella Yahalom, who issued the original decision, expressed concern about the nature of Rozilio’s actions, stating: “I did not see how the act of following and tracking itself justifies the harassment, beyond the desire to harass and publish these matters. It was not explained what the legitimate public interest in this is.”
Rozilio, a known figure in anti-government protest circles, had maintained that her actions fell within the bounds of legitimate public scrutiny and political expression. Her legal team argued that the restraining order was a disproportionate attempt to suppress dissent. Judge Tamar Bar appeared to support that interpretation, concluding that the original decision lacked sufficient grounds to justify such a sweeping restriction.