Meir Ettinger; Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Thursday, September 17, 18:00 The Netanya Magistrate’s Court dismissed a defamation lawsuit by Said Issa against journalist Meir Ettinger and ordered Issa to pay NIS 15,000 in attorney’s fees. The suit followed Ettinger’s report that Issa had organized a reception for a released terrorist. Ettinger was represented by Honenu Attorney Eladi Weisel, who argued that the report was protected by the defenses in Israeli defamation law including truth, good faith, and responsible journalism.
The case concerned a May 2022 post by Ettinger following an article about Issa, then chairman of the Kafr Qasim People’s Committee and owner of a major ceramics business there. Ettinger wrote that Issa was among the organizers of a welcome reception for a released terrorist from Kafr Qasim. The man was convicted of offenses including assistance in killing and attempting to kidnap soldiers for Hamas. Issa claimed that the report was false and denied organizing or attending the reception. The court rejected his account and found that he did take part.
The judge held that Issa’s testimony was evasive, hesitant, and inconsistent, and that it contradicted contemporaneous reports and the evidence. She found that on the day of the release Issa went to the prisoner’s courtyard, knew a reception was underway, and congratulated him — not, as he first claimed, only to help enforce COVID rules. A key exhibit was a post on the official page of the Kafr Qasim People’s Committee, which Issa headed. The post congratulated the released prisoner and ran with a photo of Issa standing beside him in the courtyard. Issa testified that he stood behind the post. The court held that the post, the photos, and the other evidence proved both his presence at the reception and his identification with it.
The main legal dispute was over the word “organized.” The judge held that even if Issa was not shown to have been the person who actually arranged the event, that was not enough for him to win the case. The court ruled that given his public role, his presence at the event, the blessing he gave the released prisoner, and the committee post issued under his leadership, the substance of the report was true. She also held that “organized” was a minor detail that caused no real harm, so the truth defense still applied. Issa’s presence, his greeting of a man convicted of serious crimes, and the committee’s post were at least as strong as the word “organized,” and perhaps stronger. A narrow difference in wording, the court said, does not bar the defense when the essential truth of the publication has been proved.
The court also found a clear public interest in the report, including the ramifications of Issa’s role as committee chairman and his dealings with government bodies. It accepted the good-faith defenses as well: the publication fell within the statutory protections for a journalist’s and investigative reporter’s moral and social duty, and for comment on a public figure’s conduct. Ettinger also enjoyed the presumption that he acted in good faith. The judge described his testimony as “orderly, consistent, coherent and credible,” and found that the evidence supported the narrative behind his report.
Issa, by contrast, failed to establish that he did not attend the event. The evidence indicated that he was presented at the time as a public figure at the front of the event, alongside those who organized it. The judge dismissed the claim in full and ordered Issa to pay Ettinger NIS 15,000 in fees plus VAT within 30 days. The judgment also granted a right of appeal to the Central District Court in Lod within 60 days of service of the judgment.
Honenu Attorney Eladi Weisel, who represented Ettinger, said: “We welcome the ruling. It ended a bold attempt by a public official to use the court to silence public criticism and hide support for a released terrorist. The plaintiff tried to have it both ways: to boast before the Arab public of giving patronage, hugs, and blessings to a man convicted of complicity in murder and attempting to abduct soldiers, while appearing to the Jewish public as a peace-seeker wounded by the publication of those facts. The court accepted our arguments and found the plaintiff’s testimony unreliable and full of contradictions. This is an important decision. We cannot accept a situation in which Arab elected officials speak in two languages and present two faces — to the Jewish public as partners for peace and opponents of terrorism, and to the Arab public as granting legitimacy and support to those acts. Hypocrisy must be exposed, and any support for terrorism condemned.”