The judge also said it was “self-evident” Ms Riley’s main concern was “antisemitism in general”.
Mr Sivier, who has crowdsourced more than £100,000 to cover his legal fees, said he intends to appeal.
Ms Riley, who has been represented by media lawyer Mark Lewis, said she hoped the case would serve as a reminder “you cannot lie and defame people without consequences and even if some seem to forget this rule when on social media, libel law does not.”
Mr Sivier now has an opportunity to plead that the defamatory claim did not cause serious harm to her reputation - but Mr Lewis said “we are very confident that such arguments would not succeed”.
Mr lewis added: “A simple analysis of the evidence showed that the vicious slurs were not true, factually what was alleged just did not happen. The enthusiasm to attack tireless campaigners against antisemitism, Rachel Riley and Tracy-Ann Oberman meant that those attacking simply ignored basic facts to propagate a false narrative that suited them. Sadly antisemitism through the ages has been based upon such vitriol rather than facts.”.
