Kfar Saba Magistrate Court Judge Ronen Peleg accepted Dana Chaldee's defamation suit against Prime Minister Yair Netanyahu's son and ruled that he must compensate her in NIS 130,<>, after alluding to Chaldee's affair with Benny Gantz.
The lawsuit was filed over two tweets by Yair Netanyahu in which he implied that Chaldee, a junior political activist, had an intimate relationship with Blue and White Chairman MK Benny Gantz. Netanyahu claimed that the tweets were completely innocent and did not imply it.
Prime Minister Yair Netanyahu's son addresses demonstrators against reform in Israel Radio || Photo: Galei Israel Radio
Among other things, Netanyahu tweeted that "Gantz had an Avi Himi-style video." The prosecutor submitted a number of tweets to the court in the days surrounding the dates of the two tweets published regarding the Chaldean that Benny Gantz attributed to engaging in sex and extramarital relationships with lovers. The judge wrote that "the defendant's evasive and stuttering answers in response to questions dealing with the subject were sufficient to indicate that then and now, more than three years later, he has no evidence of their correctness."
The judge ruled that Yair Netanyahu's tweets were "far from innocent" and that "the tweets created in one of the defendant's followers an immediate connection to those slanders that dealt with Mr. Benny Gantz's alleged sex life. The plaintiff was chosen by the defendant in the case, and was secondary damage to him. The defendant was completely indifferent to her reputation and the implications of the publications about her." The judge ruled that the reasonable person understood the connection between the tweets about Gantz's sex life and the grades about Chaldee.
Chairman of the Benny Gantz State Camp, Photo: Jonathan Zindel/Flash90
The judge strongly criticized Netanyahu, writing that "the publications reviewed and quoted in the ruling and the reactions that accompanied them are a clear example of the violent, blatant and sometimes shameful discourse taking place on social networks. Some of the statements are truly shocking and unbridled. Against this background, every person, let alone the son of the Prime Minister of Israel, whose number of followers is very large, should demonstrate self-restraint and caution in statements and publications. It should be made clear to the defendant and to the other users of social networks that even in the daily use made everywhere through mobile phones and other means, one must guard against harming the good name of others."
During previous hearings in recent months, Justice Ronen Peleg suggested that the parties reach a compromise, but the parties were unable to bridge the gaps between them. Netanyahu attacked Chaldee's lawsuit, saying: "I'm being sued for everything. Such a claim should be dismissed out of hand. After all, fees are allowed. The blood of my entire family is allowed in court." Now Peleg has decided the trial and sentenced Netanyahu to pay compensation to Chaldee.
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