Barak Cohen given six-month restraining order for harassing Avner Netanyahu

The young Netanyahu was speaking in court as he’s requesting to issue a restraining order against an activist who heckles him in public about his father’s alleged corruption.

AUGUST 4, 2019 16:24

Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu with family, Sara Avner (left) and Yair. (photo credit: AMOS BEN GERSHOM, GPO) — Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu with family, Sara Avner (left) and Yair.

(photo credit: AMOS BEN GERSHOM, GPO)

Lawyer Barak Cohen has been handed a six-month restraining order for publicly harassing Avner Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Army Radio reported.

Netanyahu appeared in court in Tel Aviv on Sunday and said, “I do not enjoy having a security detail following me wherever I go, I did not choose to be born to my parents."

He was speaking in court as part of his effort to file a restraining order against Cohen, a social activist who had taken to heckling the young Netanyahu in public when he is out with his friends.

In a recent incident, Cohen stood outside a restaurant when Netanyahu and his friends were sitting at an outdoor table and shouted at him, "How much money did you father steal?”

Netanyahu decided to go to the police to file a restraining order against Cohen, claiming he is a private person and not a public servant.

When asked by the restaurant workers to leave, Cohen argued that he was standing on the pavement, which is public space, and they had no right to ask him to walk away.

Netanyahu was greeted with jeers when he entered the court on Sunday by Cohen supporters, who told him, "Your family is a crime that is robbing this country.”

Judge Amit Yariv remarked that Netanyahu was late, to which his attorney Yossi Cohen said they were delayed by the needed security arrangements for the prime minister’s son.

Cohen argued that due to Netanyahu being protected by state-offered security detail, he is at least partly funded by public tax money and is therefore a “figure with distinct public-interest features.”

Cohen was asked by Judge Yariv how exactly does shouting at the young man that his father is a thief “promote the values Sir promotes,” Haaretz reported.

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