Lost in a defamation lawsuit: Ron Kobi will pay thousands of shekels to a member of the Tiberias Council Israel today

Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court Judge Aviim Barkai ordered Ron Kobi, the former mayor of Tiberias, his brother and sister-in-law to pay NIS 52,000 in compensation, including attorney's fees and expenses, following a series of defamation publications published by the defendants against a friend The Tiberias Council, David Ohana, in a Facebook group called "Lifting Tiberias off the boards".

The plaintiff, a member of the Tiberias City Council, claimed in his lawsuit that Ron Kobi had been obsessively active for a long time in a series of libelous publications aimed at damaging his name.

According to him, Kobi is a "slander machine" that fires at a rapid rate of fire, an almost endless series of slanderous statements against him and others in a dose that is unparalleled in Israel. " , In text and image and also in video, at lunch and in the evening, on Facebook and also on WhatsApp.

The plaintiff further added that most of Kobi's defamatory posts are uploaded to a Facebook group run by his brother and sister-in-law, established by the defendants and under their management, which has about 13,500 members and receives thousands of views, hundreds of comments and "likes".

The plaintiff emphasized in his lawsuit that the publications were published serially and as part of a "shaming" campaign that the defendants are conducting against him and against various elected officials in the city.

According to him, these are publications written in belligerent and exaggerated language, which present him and his friends in a negative light (since he says they are called "corrupt", "criminals", etc.) without any basis, with complete indifference to the damage to his name.

On the other hand, according to the defendants, the essence of this lawsuit is to sabotage Kobi's chances as part of his candidacy for mayor of Tiberias.

B.

To their approach, this lawsuit is another lawsuit in a chain of silence lawsuits that have been filed recently against Kobi, who is a leading social activist in the city of Tiberias.

According to them, those public figures are incapable of absorbing legitimate public criticism, cannot bear the fact that he is the leading candidate to see the city of Tiberias, and choose to abuse legal proceedings to infringe on Kobi's freedom of expression and his candidacy for mayor of Tiberias.

The defendants stated in their defense that the same parties who are interested in silencing Kobi and silencing any legitimate public criticism and who set themselves up to sabotage his candidacy for mayor of Tiberias and decided to step up and chose to act against his brother and sister-in-law as well.

Therefore, the defendants believe that this lawsuit, like the other lawsuits that have been filed, is an annoying and troublesome lawsuit whose whole essence is an attempt to abuse court proceedings and prevent Kobi from continuing his public activities and thus harming his candidacy for mayor of Tiberias.

Judge Barkai, who rejected the claims of Ron Kobi and his family, noted in the verdict that the bibliography shows an unequivocal picture that these were intended to discredit the plaintiff, despise him and make fun of him, adding that the plaintiff's claims should not be considered idle allegations. .

"The impression given from the Bible is that the plaintiff is portrayed as a corrupt man who is embezzled with public money and getting rich at their expense.

The publications also present the plaintiff as a person who uses "threats" and as a person who uses money illegally, along with his presentation as someone who raises property tax payments in illegal ways, etc., "Judge Barkai wrote, adding: "

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