Yair Netanyahu Photo Kobi Gideon, GPO
Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lost a libel case and was ordered to pay 130,000 Shekels (about $35,000) in damages to Dana Cassidy, an activist for Benny Gantz’s opposition Blue and White Party.
The case was brought over a Facebook post made by Yair Netanyahu around the time of the 2020 Israeli elections in which he implied that Dana Cassidy was having a romantic affair with Benny Gantz. At the time, Gantz was a former IDF Chief of Staff who founded a new party. He would go on to serve as Israel’s defense minister in two governments and now serves as an opposition leader in the Knesset.
Yair Netanyahu’s 140,000 Facebook followers saw the post.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at [email protected].
Thank you.
So, the real question now is how will an unemployed 32-year-old who still lives at home like Yair Netanyahu find the money to pay the $35,000 to Cassidy? And the other important question is will Netanyahu learn his lesson and stop mouthing off all the time on social media as he is known to do in immature ad hominin attacks on Benjamin Netanyahu’s political opponents.
In his ruling, Judge Ronen Peleg made reference to Yair Netanyahu’s problem with thinking that free speech means freedom to slander saying, “Some of the statements are truly shocking and extreme. Against this background, it is appropriate that every person, particularly the son of a prime minister of Israel with a large number of followers, demonstrate self-restraint and caution in statements and publications.”
For her part, Dana Cassidy sees this as more than just a personal victory. She sees it as a victory for all people who are harassed on social media telling Israel’s Channel 12 news, “Everyone who is quick to pull the trigger will now know that trampling on a person’s dignity has a price.”
This is now the second time that Yair Netanyahu has lost a defamation case, and in 2023 alone. In March a Tel Aviv court ordered him to pay former Labor MK Stav Shaffir about $20,000 in damages, legal and court fees.
