JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son should compensate a girl who sued him after he implied she was having an affair along with his father’s chief political opponent, a court docket dominated Wednesday.
The court docket ordered Netanyahu’s eldest son, Yair Netanyahu, to pay over $34,000 in compensation and $6,000 in authorized prices to Dana Cassidy. Cassidy sued him for defamation in 2020 after he insinuated on social media that she was romantically concerned with Benny Gantz, who was working in opposition to his father for prime minister on the time.
Over the course of the election, which in the end returned Benjamin Netanyahu to management, Yair Netanyahu posted a sequence of unsubstantiated statements implying that Gantz was having extramarital affairs, in line with the ruling.
“The insinuation that the younger activist had an intimate relationship with the top of the social gathering, a married man who’s a long time older than her, may humiliate her and make her a goal of hatred, contempt or ridicule,” Decide Ronen Peleg wrote within the ruling.
Yair Netanyahu first posted a screenshot of Cassidy’s Fb profile on the platform “X,” previously generally known as Twitter, writing “Does anybody know who that is?”
He then reposted an article with a photograph of Cassidy and Gantz hugging at a political occasion for Blue and White, Gantz’s centrist political social gathering. On the time, Cassidy was an energetic member. The underside of the image says, “he made me a cup of tea and it turned me on,” in line with the ruling.
Within the submit, Yair Netanyahu wrote, “to every his personal cup of tea.”
Cassidy has advised Israeli media prior to now that she handled a flood of on-line harassment within the wake of the posts. She didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.
“The son of the prime minister should exert self-control,” Peleg wrote within the ruling, calling Yair Netanyahu “evasive and stammering.”
Yair Netanyahu, who has served as a detailed casual adviser to his father, is thought for posting incendiary messages on social media and has been concerned in a number of defamation circumstances through the years. Earlier this 12 months, a choose ordered him to pay $18,000 to a former lawmaker in Israel’s opposition Labor Social gathering whom he referred to as “ugly.”
Benjamin Netanyahu heads Israel’s far-right authorities, which incorporates plenty of lawmakers and ministers with shut ties to his son.
Israeli media reported earlier this 12 months that the prime minister and his spouse, Sara, have urged Yair Netanyahu to cease posting on social media.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace didn’t touch upon the ruling.