An Israeli labor court in Tel Aviv has ordered Bloomberg P.L. and its Israeli representative to pay veteran journalist Amir Mzrahi about 360,000 shekels after they canceled his employment. The court found that the company had already entered into a binding employment contract with him and then acted in bad faith by using background checks to end the deal.
Mzrahi and Bloomberg negotiated in 2022 over a senior role as head of Bloomberg’s Israel bureau. He signed the employment agreement and returned it, and in April 2022 Bloomberg confirmed that he was approved to begin in June, subject to three conditions: timely signing of the paperwork, reference checks, and background screening. About three weeks before the planned start date, Bloomberg told him the screening had uncovered Facebook posts from 2012 and X, then Twitter, posts from May 2021, including the words “Nigga” and “Bitches.”
The court said the checks found nothing else negative. It also rejected Bloomberg’s argument that the posts were inconsistent with company values and significant because the position was senior and required personal example. The judge wrote that in today’s internet environment, the question of a person’s “right to be forgotten” arises, and said the defendants failed to justify searching social networks roughly a decade back or holding those old posts against Mzrahi, especially when they were short comments rather than signed articles or opinion pieces.
Mzrahi said he was shocked, did not remember the posts, and later explained their context. He said the 2012 Facebook material was satirical and part of a discussion with Jewish comedians, while the 2021 post responded to anti-Israeli, antisemitic activity abroad during Operation Guardian of the Walls. He said Bloomberg told him deleting the posts would help, so he removed them and shut down his Facebook account, but at the end of May the company canceled the offer immediately. The court awarded him about 307,000 shekels for financial harm, 50,000 shekels for emotional distress, and 54,000 shekels in legal fees.
