Israeli Lawyer Acquitted of Insulting Public Official After 5-Year Case
Translated & summarized from Haaretz by baba
Lawyer Barak Cohen was acquitted on Thursday of insulting a public official, a charge related to a song he wrote about a police officer. The acquittal followed a five-year legal process after Cohen was convicted in 2017 but continued to perform the song. The judge ruled that the repeated performance of the song, disconnected from other context, did not constitute the offense. Cohen, an activist, had previously received a suspended sentence for his role in the "B'aim L'bankaim" protest.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- Lawyer Barak Cohen was acquitted of insulting a public official after a five-year legal battle.
- The charge stemmed from a song Cohen wrote and performed about police intelligence coordinator Alon Hamdani.
- Cohen was convicted in 2017 but a new indictment was filed due to his continued performance of the song.
- A judge ruled that the repeated performance of the song, in isolation, did not meet the legal definition of the offense.
- Cohen is also known as an activist who initiated the "B'aim L'bankaim" protest and received a suspended sentence.
- The song was first published in 2014 and criticized Hamdani's actions as a police officer.
Lawyer Barak Cohen was acquitted on Thursday of insulting a public official, a charge stemming from a song he wrote and published about a police officer. Cohen had been convicted of the same offense in 2017, but a new indictment was filed because he continued to perform the song. The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court judge, Alaa Massarwa, ruled that the "repeated echoing of an offensive song... standing alone and disconnected from other publications on the same subject" did not establish the offense.
Cohen, a social activist known for initiating the "B'aim L'bankaim" (Coming for the Bankers) protest, was given a six-month suspended sentence in 2019 for his activities in that movement. The song in question targeted Alon Hamdani, a police intelligence coordinator responsible for gathering information at soccer games. The two first met a decade ago when Cohen assisted Hapoel Jerusalem fans in exercising their right to protest. Cohen later discovered Hamdani had attempted to recruit a fan to work with the police and published a post criticizing him. Cohen claimed Hamdani then tried to sow discord between him and the fan group, referring to Cohen as a "leftist anarchist."
Cohen subsequently wrote the song about Hamdani. His 2017 conviction for this offense resulted in 300 hours of community service and a NIS 5,000 fine. The song, first published in 2014, contains lyrics critical of Hamdani. According to the indictment from which he was acquitted, Cohen continued to distribute the song on Facebook and Twitter and performed it at numerous events between 2018 and 2019, even offering CDs for sale. During one performance, he was recorded alluding to his suspended sentence, stating, "Let's activate the condition." He also posted, "The state was not founded to tell me what to sing."
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