National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has filed a NIS 100,000 defamation lawsuit against Yashar party chairman MK Gadi Eisenkot and his political party.
The lawsuit, filed through attorney Zeev Wolf, concerns comments Eisenkot made during a podcast interview in July. Eisenkot discussed violent TikTok videos aimed at young people, including messages calling for Arabs to be killed and promoting violence and bullying.
Eisenkot then referred to “the phenomenon called Itamar Ben Gvir,” describing it as “very worrying and disturbing.”
Ben Gvir claims the comments directly connected him to the messages described by Eisenkot, falsely portraying him as someone who promotes murder, racism, violence, and bullying. He says he has never published or promoted such content.
According to the lawsuit, the interview was posted on several platforms, including Kan 11 and the Yashar party’s YouTube channel. The video had received more than 10,000 views on Kan’s channel and over 1.4 million views on the party’s channel as of September 3.
Ben Gvir says he sent Eisenkot and the party a warning letter demanding that the comments be removed, corrected, and denied, but they refused.
He is asking the court to award him NIS 100,000 without proof of damages, remove the video from platforms controlled by the defendants, and require them to publish a correction and denial.
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