Yair Netanyahu wins libel suit against political activist

The prime minister’s son won the case against an anti-Netanyahu political activist.

By World Israel News Staff

Yair Netanyahu, the youngest son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, won his libel suit against Abie Benjamin on Sunday.

The younger Netanyahu sued Benjamin three years ago for posting on Facebook that the prime minister had asked the Mossad chief to issue his son a fake passport for the purposes of hiding millions in offshore accounts.

Benjamin had written in his Facebook post that the pretext the prime minister gave was that the passport was for security reasons.

Benjamin, a political activist, is best known as the leading organizer behind weekly protests in front of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s home demanding an indictment of Netanyahu for corruption.

Netanyahu’s son had asked for 140,000 shekels ($39,100) in the suit. But the Tel Aviv court reduced the sum to 20,000 shekels ($5,600) in damages and an additional 7,000 shekels ($2,000) in fees.

Netanyahu has made a name for himself by aggressively defending his family on social media. At one point, he was temporarily barred by Facebook.

Benjamin appeared to be undeterred by the loss.

“I will continue to publish any information that I think is worthy,” Benjamin said in a Monday radio interview.

He claimed the suit was meant to silence him, a response to his the attention he was drawing to the Submarine Affair, which involved corruption related to the purchase of German submarines.

The prime minister is not suspected in that case.