Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Zini, through his attorneys Dr. Yehiel Weinrot, Tal Shachaf, and Yehuda Schwartz, has filed a lawsuit for half a million shekels against Haaretz, accusing the newspaper of orchestrating a smear campaign against him and his family.
The lawsuit reveals that on September 4, 2025, a large front-page article was published in the Haaretz supplement by journalist Hilo Glazer, titled "There Have Been Extremists in Israel's Leadership, But a Shin Bet Head Like David Zini Has Never Been Seen."
According to the lawsuit, the article aimed to create a "dramatic and dark atmosphere," using large font and a black background, while pointing an accusatory finger at David Zini, the incoming head of the Shin Bet, and especially at his uncle, Rabbi Eliyahu Zini.
The main claim in the lawsuit revolves around Glazer attributing to Rabbi Zini the publication of an article in the book Baruch HaGever, in which, according to Glazer, Rabbi Zini praised the massacre at the Cave of the Patriarchs and claimed that "the prohibition of 'Do not kill' does not apply to a Jew who kills a non-Jew."
Rabbi Zini asserts that this is a complete fabrication, stating that "the plaintiff never wrote or contributed an article to this book; his name does not appear in the list of authors; there is no reference to him regarding the massacre at the Cave of the Patriarchs; and he has never made the claims attributed to him on any platform."
Rabbi Zini further claims that the defamation did not end there. On September 22, 2025, another article was published, this time by journalist Doron Koren, repeating the same allegations with added "sensationalism," according to the lawsuit: "His nephew (Rabbi Dr. Zini) praised the massacre at the Cave of the Patriarchs in an article in the book Baruch HaGever and claimed that 'Do not kill' does not apply to a Jew who kills a non-Jew."
The lawsuit states that following the publication in the Haaretz supplement, other journalists from the newspaper repeated these claims, including in an editorial titled "Zini's Test" and in another article by Yossi Klein.
Rabbi Zini claims that this is a "coordinated and timed campaign of intimidation designed to tarnish the reputation of the family and relatives of the new head of the Shin Bet, Major General David Zini, with the goal of thwarting his appointment." The average reader might mistakenly believe that Rabbi Zini indeed praised the massacre, something he denies, claiming it is entirely false.