Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett filed a NIS 1 million (£239,000) defamation lawsuit on Tuesday against a rabbi who claimed the politician’s mother is not Jewish.
The lawsuit accuses Rabbi Ronen Shaulov of defamatory accusations and “appalling epithets and curses”, which Mr Bennett says were seen by at least 700,000 people.
Mr Bennett served as Prime Minister from June 2021 to June 2022, and as the 3rd Alternate Prime Minister of Israel from July to November 2022. His big tent governing coalition collapsed last month after Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing religious bloc won 64 of the 120 seats in the Israeli Knesset.
The former Jewish Home party leader claimed that Google users searching for his mother are automatically suggested to add the search terms “Christian” or “convert”, suggesting that Shaulov’s statement had “took deep hold” among a large chunk of the public.
In multiple online videos, Mr Shaulov asserted that the former Israeli Prime Minister’s mother, Myrna, underwent a conversion to Reform Judaism in the US. He suggested that Mr Bennett “sold out the country” to non-Jews and that he is “worse than a dog,” due to his disloyalty, The Times of Israel reports.
While converts to Reform or Conservative movements are eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Right of Return, the Religious Authority does not recognise them as Jews.
Mr Bennett’s parents, who migrated to Israel from San Francisco in 1967, are both from Ashkenazi backgrounds, and some of their ancestors “were murdered in the Holocaust for being Jewish”, according to a statement from Mr Bennett.
Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett accompanies his mother Myrna Bennett as she receives her third COVID-19 vaccine in 2021. (Photo by -/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Mr Bennett claimed that speculation over her background “brought her great pain and sadness.”
He explained that while he had avoided pursuing any defamation suits while in ministerial office he now felt obliged to take action against what he calls “the spread of lies that poison public discourse.”
He stated that any damages received from the proceedings will be donated to charities that aid families of IDF soldiers who died in combat.
This lawsuit comes after a series of such actions announced by Mr Bennett in his self-described mission to “clean up the internet.”
On Monday he also filed a NIS 500,000 (£119,178) defamation lawsuit against activist Igal Malka on the basis that Malka repeated claims that the ex-PM took NIS 50 million (£12 million) in public funds.
Mr Malka has said he will fight Bennett in court and shared a crowdfunding campaign to pay his defence fees.
In another row last week Mr Bennett threatened to launch legal action against Yair Levy, chair of the ultra-Orthodox Behadrei Haredim news site, over a tweet that accused the ex-PM of funnelling public money towards his home refurbishment.
Mr Levy later removed the original post and apologised for the claim, admitting that the image he shared of the supposed renovations at Mr Bennett’s home was untruthful. As part of the agreement, Mr Levy paid NIS 10,000 (£2,384) in damages to Mr Bennett.
