MK Miki Zohar filed an appeal against the decision of the Magistrate’s Court to dismiss his defamation suit against the “New Contract” association, known as the organizer of the “Crim Minister” protests. In his appeal, MK Zohar warns that if the verdict is upheld, Judges in Israel may also suffer slander and defamatory publications. MK Zohar also warns that if it is not determined that defamation was published against him, freedom of speech in Israel may be damaged and states that every “voter of sound mind” will refrain from giving his vote to a Knesset candidate who is suspected of being corrupt.
In response to the mock appeal in the “New Contract” association about MK Zohar’s statements, they mentioned his blatant and defamatory statements from the past, both against the anti-Netanyahu protesters and the judiciary, and asked to reject the appeal.
The roots of the lawsuit in January 2021. Following the storming of a mob of agitated Americans on the Capitol in Washington tweeted MK Zohar: “A question that bothers me: What is more serious and harmful to democracy? A violent attack by American citizens on the Capitol building in Washington, or a violent attack by Israeli citizens on the Prime Minister’s House in Jerusalem? Objectivity is an important quality, I suggest that the media and our political opponents try and adopt it from time to time.”
In “Maariv” the reporter Eric Bender reported on Zohar’s tweet and attached to it the response of “Crim Minister”, which is a new contract association: “Miki Zohar is a senior soldier in Netanyahu’s criminal organization who does not stop inciting and lying. The comparison between the violent American right and law-abiding protesters is disturbed Even by Topaz Locke’s warped standards. The protesters never tried to break into the residence, but the Balfour propaganda machine’s obsessive preoccupation with demonstrations seems to have spawned a new high of delusion and fake news. Bibi, incitement and lies will not help. We are determined and will not stop until you go.”
In response, MK Zohar filed a NIS 140,000 defamation lawsuit against the association (but not against “Maariv”). In the lawsuit, which was filed through attorney Shahar Agmon, MK Zohar claimed that “this is a violent, despicable, rude and violent advertisement […] It is a lost purpose to damage the plaintiff’s good name as hard and as badly as possible, while presenting him (which is clearly unfounded and false) as a criminal and corrupt member of a criminal organization and who incites and lies constantly.”
In the defense of the New Contract Association, submitted through attorney Liad Wertzheiser, it is claimed that the association’s response to “Maariv” is in terms of “expressing a legitimate opinion about an elected official”. from Capitol Hill, will not understand from them that the plaintiff is a criminal, who is employed in a real criminal organization, headed by the prime minister, but that the defendant believes that the plaintiff is jealously protecting the prime minister (whose conduct is seen as corrupt), and in the process behaves in an aggressive and thuggish manner.”
MK Zohar: “Granting the protection of freedom of expression to things that contain nothing but disgrace and hatred will end up weakening the firm position of this freedom”
Judge Nitza Maimon-Shashua, from the Magistrate’s Court in Petach-Tikva, accepted the defense’s claims and dismissed the lawsuit. According to her ruling, the only sentence in the response to a new contract that can be considered defamatory of MK Zohar is “Miki Zohar is a senior soldier in Netanyahu’s criminal organization who never stops inciting and lying.” Regarding the first part of the sentence, the judge stated that there is no factual claim in it , and that the phrase “criminal organization” should not be read in it according to its meaning in the criminal law. Regarding the second part of the sentence, it was ruled that it does not constitute defamation.
Last May, MK Zohar appealed the verdict. “God forbid, the verdict will remain as it is, according to which the hurling of idle criminal accusations against an elected official and/or a public representative […] This will turn the defamation law into a dead letter,” argued MK Zohar in his appeal, which was also submitted through attorney Shahar Agmon. Later, MK Zohar added and warned that “if, God forbid, this honorable court authorizes statements of this type against the appellant, who served as the chairman of the coalition in the last Knesset, who will stick a hand in our hands that such statements will not be heard, for example, also towards the representatives of the judicial system?”
The “crime minister” sign at the independents’ demonstration against the Netanyahu government, July 11, 2020, Rabin Square in Tel Aviv (Photo: Miriam Elster)
According to MK Zohar, “Maintaining the level of public debate and the culture of discourse in Israel is an important social interest that everyone who holds freedom of expression dear to their heart should be anxious about it. Granting the protection of freedom of expression to things that contain nothing but disgrace and hatred will end up weakening the firm position of this freedom.”
MK Zohar claims that his presentation as a corrupt person and a member of a criminal organization not only harmed his good name but also harmed his professional future, since “there is and cannot be any dispute that a sane voter would seek to refrain from voting for a candidate for the Knesset who is corrupt and/or a criminal, or even suspected of being so “.
MK Zohar concludes his appeal by appealing to the court “to establish a social norm that prohibits the recitation of the statements of the subject of the publication and the like, towards public figures and holders of public positions of any kind – from members of the Knesset to judges and legal advisors.”
Crimea Minister: “A complete lack of understanding of the fundamental principles and the balance between them in a democratic country”
In a reply recently submitted by “Crim Minster”, through attorney Liad Wertzheiser, it is claimed that two possibilities arise from reading MK Zohar’s appeal: “Either it is a complete lack of understanding of the fundamental principles and the balance between them in a democratic state, or the appellant is actually petitioning to reshape the The same principles, contrary to the law that has taken root in light of the last decades (and in fact, to the entire democratic tradition).”
It is further argued in the answer to the appeal that MK Zohar’s appeal to the High Court to “determine the limits of discourse” is a “particularly puzzling” appeal, since MK Zohar himself is “known for his blunt style and his flamboyant language, and as one who ‘stretches’ the limits of discourse, From every possible direction.” Among other things, it is mentioned that MK Zohar previously attributed “evil” and “hatred” to the protesters against the Benjamin Netanyahu government, claiming that they are “dangerous”, “violent”, working “for money”, “anarchists who are ruining our lives ” and want to “create destruction, chaos and destruction in the country through the spread of the corona virus”.
He also claimed on various occasions for a conspiracy in which different government systems “stitched cases” to Netanyahu in order to remove him from power. MK Zohar claimed that “Mandelblit was blackmailed by Shay Nitzan so that he would file the indictments against the Prime Minister”, that “the law enforcement system was organized as one man in order to overthrow the right-wing government and its leader” and that “if the Prime Minister comes To the court he will go to prison when he is innocent.”
When such a person warns against the possibility that the rejection of the appeal he filed will lead to the defamation of judges and representatives of the judicial system, his words are “absolutely ridiculous”, the answer to the appeal claims. “Crim Minister” advises MK Zohar that if he “wants to fight the ‘sick evil that pervades the violent and rambunctious discourse’, as he says, he would do well if he starts with himself, and with the members of his faction.”
As for MK Zohar’s claim that the publication of “Crimes Minister” harmed his professional future since there is no sane voter who would vote “for a Knesset candidate who is corrupt and/or a criminal, or even suspected as such” in “Crimes Minister” they write: “Well, Blessed is the believer.”
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