Julia Frankel
AP / August 30, 2023
JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son must compensate a woman who sued him after he implied she was having an affair with his father’s chief political opponent, a court ruled Wednesday.
The court ordered Netanyahu’s eldest son, Yair Netanyahu, to pay over $34,000 in compensation and $6,000 in legal costs to Dana Cassidy. Cassidy sued him for defamation in 2020 after he insinuated on social media that she was romantically involved with Benny Gantz, who was running against his father for prime minister at the time.
Over the course of the election, which ultimately returned Benjamin Netanyahu to leadership, Yair Netanyahu posted a series of unsubstantiated statements implying that Gantz was having extramarital affairs, according to the ruling.
“The insinuation that the young activist had an intimate relationship with the head of the party, a married man who is decades older than her, could humiliate her and make her a target of hatred, contempt or ridicule,” Judge Ronen Peleg wrote in the ruling.
