Court Orders Netanyahu Supporter to Pay Protest Leader Shaked Bressler Damages

A court has ordered Esther Yohay, a supporter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to pay NIS 41,000 (approximately $11,000 USD) in damages to protest leader Shaked Bressler. Yohay was also ordered to pay NIS 10,000 in legal costs and remove the defamatory publications.

The ruling stems from conspiracy theories Yohay spread about Bressler, accusing her of being an "internal traitor" and alleging she agreed to or aided the October 7th Hamas attack. Yohay claimed her statements were legitimate criticism of Bressler's leadership of protests against the "legal government" and that she was protected by the defense of truth, citing Bressler's own statements about the government potentially being left without security forces if it defied the High Court of Justice. However, the court found that while some of Yohay's publications were opinion or metaphor, such as calling the protest an "organization of terror," others were presented as factual claims that Yohay failed to prove.

Specifically, the judge noted that Yohay provided no evidence for the severe accusations that Bressler "agreed" to or "helped" the massacre. During her testimony, Yohay offered no coherent explanation, repeated claims of a non-existent "agreement" between Bressler and Hamas, and pointed to images of demonstrators without proving any connection to Bressler. The claim that Bressler committed "treason" or another criminal offense was also unsubstantiated.

While the judge acknowledged Yohay genuinely believed her claims, he stated that belief does not substitute for proof. The court rejected Yohay's argument that Bressler's lawsuit was an attempt at a "gag order," partly because the claims were not based on baseless allegations. The judge consolidated all publications into a single instance for the purpose of calculating damages.