Former Military Intelligence Chief Loses Defamation Case, Ordered to Pay NIS 190,000

Retired Maj. Gen. Uri Sagie, a former head of Military Intelligence and longtime resident of Kibbutz Bialik, suffered a major legal defeat in Haifa Magistrate’s Court this week. Judge Sigalit Gatz-Ophir fully accepted a defamation lawsuit filed by Yedid Cohen, chairman of the settlement committee in the village where Sagie lives, and ordered Sagie to pay NIS 190,000 in damages.

Cohen’s claim centered on a long-running personal dispute between the two men, which the court said had escalated over the years despite an earlier legal proceeding that ended with an apology from Cohen. The judge also partially accepted Sagie’s counterclaim, awarding him only NIS 5,000 over a WhatsApp message Cohen had published.

In her ruling, Gatz-Ophir made sharp findings about Sagie’s testimony, writing that his evidence was not credible and that he had “chosen to ignore the truth” during the case. The decision thus went beyond damages and delivered an explicit judicial rebuke of the former senior officer’s version of events.

Sagie, 82, was born in Kibbutz Bialik and is the son of the settlement’s founders. He previously served on the settlement committee and even chaired it. His military record includes senior posts such as commander of field forces, Southern Command chief, assistant chief of staff, head of operations, and Israel’s representative in peace talks with Lebanon. He served in Golani Brigade for most of his career, took part in the Six-Day War, the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War, the First Lebanon War, and Operation Entebbe, later commanded the 36th Armored Division on the Golan Heights, led Israel’s Syria peace talks team in 1999 to 2000, and later chaired the board of Mekorot.