The Tel Aviv District Court rejected a request by Yair Netanyahu to delay the payment of NIS 250,000 plus legal fees he was ordered to pay for defamation against former Walla News editor Avi Alkalay, after finding that Netanyahu had over NIS 1 million in his bank accounts, according to Globes.
The court ruled on Sunday that the younger Netanyahu must pay Alkalay NIS 250,000 after he failed to file any defense. Netanyahu filed an appeal, claiming that he was not informed of the suit, but Alkalay managed to prove that this was not the case, as Netanyahu had replied on social media to an article about the lawsuit published when it was filed. The court rejected the appeal and ordered Netanyahu to compensate Alkalay for NIS 30,000 in legal fees.
Netanyahu recently filed another appeal and a request to delay the requirement to pay Alkalay until a decision is made, saying that he did not have the money to pay the demanded amount, and that paying that amount would cause him “financial ruin, and in fact, I will suffer such a fatal injury that I will not be able to recover from it,” according to Globes.
Despite Netanyahu’s claims, Alkalay’s lawyers proved that Netanyahu had over NIS 1 million in his bank accounts. The district court rejected Netanyahu’s request for an extension and ordered him to pay an additional NIS 7,500.
The judge wrote that Netanyahu “did not bring even a shred of evidence for his claim that he may ‘collapse financially’ if the verdict is not delayed, and that he does not have the financial means to repay the compensation imposed on him... The applicant did not attach payslips or account sheets or a summary of balances or other property affidavit indicating his financial situation and his claims were made in ignorance without any substantiation.
“Moreover, the respondent (Avi Alkalay, AG) attached to his response sheets ‘Information on assets in banks’...and from them, it appears that the applicant has about a million shekels in liquid assets,” according to Globes.
In 2019, Alkalay filed a defamation lawsuit against the current opposition leader’s son after he shared a post claiming that Alkalay was a “plant of the Wexner Foundation,” and an “accomplice to conspiracies” against his father, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu also insinuated that Alkalay should be arrested for “acts that need to be investigated,” though he did not specify the acts he was referring to.
In March, Netanyahu was ordered to pay NIS 500,000 in a defamation lawsuit to Dana Cassidy, a political activist from Blue and White. The lawsuit came as a result of Netanyahu making baseless claims on his Twitter account insinuating that she and Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz were in an intimate and sexual relationship, Hebrew media reported.
In that case, as well, Netanyahu failed to file a letter of defense.
Gadi Zaig contributed to this report.