Correspondence between the Shabak and Ben Caspit
Thursday, August 27, 2026, 20:29 Right-wing activist Elisha Yered is suing the Shabak (GSS) for NIS 150,000 for invasion of privacy, defamation, and damages. This case follows an earlier lawsuit he filed against journalist Ben Caspit. In that case, Caspit was ordered to pay NIS 20,000 for publishing personal information and criminal-record details he had received from the Shabak. Honenu Attorney Menashe Yado filed the new lawsuit on Yered’s behalf in the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court. The lawsuit argues that the information was given to Caspit with the knowledge that he would use it in his reporting. Responsibility, Yered claims, therefore lies not only with the journalist but also with those who supplied him the material.
The new claim centers on Yered’s allegation that the Shabak gave Caspit personal information from the criminal registry, including details he says came from police records, as well as classified information identifying him as a “bedukai Shabak,” a person checked or investigated by the agency. The lawsuit states that after it was reported in November 2022 that Yered was expected to become spokesperson for MK Limor Son Har-Melech, Caspit posted a series of items drawing on Yered’s criminal record and claiming he had been held in administrative detention. Caspit also published other information that Yered says should have remained confidential. The earlier lawsuit, filed over those posts, ran for about three years. In September 2025, the court found that Caspit had not met the objective duty of good faith and ordered him to pay NIS 20,000 for one post ruled defamatory.
The new lawsuit states that on June 18, 2026, Caspit filed an affidavit meant to show good faith and revealed that he had checked the information with the Shabak before publishing. In that correspondence, the Shabak confirmed that Yered had supposedly been held in administrative detention and also confirmed classified personal information that he was a “bedukai.” Yered’s attorneys say this information was given during a pre-publication check. They further claim the Shabak passed on criminal- and police-registry details, including 17 detentions, detention dates, and the number of days in detention. “The clear conclusion is that the Shabak gave Ben Caspit information whose disclosure is an offense under the Criminal Information Law,” the claim states.
The lawsuit argues that the law does not allow the Shabak to divulge criminal-registry information indiscriminately. Such transfers are limited to listed bodies and officials, and only for purposes set by law. “Journalists are not included in the addendum, therefore the Shabak has no authority to give registry information to journalists,” the lawsuit states. It also argues that releasing the information for publication renders the Shabak jointly responsible for the resulting harm. “The Shabak gave Ben Caspit the information with full awareness that he intended to publish it,” the claim says. Yered therefore asks the court to treat the Shabak as a partner or aider in the publications.
Attorney Yado ends with sharp criticism of the agency’s conduct: “The Shabak is meant to serve all of us, the entire country and all its citizens. It is not supposed to put its capabilities at the service of any journalist, or any political side. It is strange to think that whenever someone Ben Caspit dislikes enters public life, he can get that person’s criminal record and other information from the Shabak and shame them online.”
Yered now asks the court to order the state to pay NIS 150,000, NIS 80,000 for defamation and NIS 70,000 for invasion of privacy, plus legal costs and attorney’s fees.