Israel’s prime minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu, his wife Sara and their son Yair have won a defamation suit against former premier Ehud Olmert, who had called them mentally ill and refused to apologise for it.
Mr Olmert was ordered by the Tel Aviv magistrates’ court on Monday to pay the family a total of 97,500 shekels (€17,600) for having asserted in two interviews in April 2021 that the Netanyahus were “irreparably” mentally ill.
Mr Olmert told the court that what he had said was not libellous because it was true, and also that he was clearly expressing an opinion. Seeking to justify his claim, he said he had followed the Netanyahus’ expressions and their actions.
“I also listened to the recordings of the family members. I consulted with experts about behaviours that definitely went into the definition of what is popularly called crazy and abnormal behaviour,” he added.
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The Netanyahu family filed a defamation suit after Mr Olmert refused to apologise, seeking 837,000 shekels in damages for his “obsessive efforts to harm their good name in public, out of jealousy and deep frustration”.
Last June, Sara Netanyahu defended the decision to sue Mr Olmert: “I felt that a red line had been crossed, because this is not a journalist, but a former prime minister. Everything that was said is just a bunch of lies.”
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The court ruled that Mr Olmert’s portrayal of Mr Netanyahu and his wife and son had exposed them to “hate, ridicule or degradation” and that the evidence heard in court about the behaviour of the plaintiffs did not help to provide an answer regarding their mental health.
“Associating a certain behaviour with this or that disease is a medical matter, and the court cannot determine this,” said judge Amit Yariv.
“There is no doubt that even today, despite the efforts of professionals, mental illness holds a negative connotation in society, which imposes a stigma on the patients. Is it justified? There is no doubt that it is not,” he said.
Regarding compensation, the court decided that although Yair should be granted a larger amount than his parents due to his status as the son of a public official, Mr Olmert was able to present evidence that Yair himself had used similar expressions as part of a political discussion.
“I think it’s difficult for a man to accept compensation for things he himself said at another time,” the court ruled.
Mr Olmert was Israeli prime minister before Mr Netanyahu’s latest stint in the role. He ended his tenure before being formally indicted of corruption and serving 16 months of a 27-month prison sentence.
Mr Netanyahu is also facing corruption charges, which he strenuously denies, in three separate graft cases.
