Israeli court orders two students to pay NIS 80,000 over defamatory school rumors

A Magistrate’s Court in Beit Shemesh ordered a teenage girl from a Haredi high school there to receive NIS 80,000 in damages after two fellow students spread vile rumors about her. The court also ordered the two defendants to pay NIS 54,000 in legal costs, for a total of NIS 134,000. The ruling was issued on Sunday, June 15, 2026.

According to the judgment, the students circulated claims that their classmate had had sex with her divorced boss, become pregnant, and undergone an abortion. They spread the allegations through a dedicated Instagram account and by posting QR-code signs around the school that linked to it.

Judge Elad Lang wrote that the remarks were especially humiliating given the plaintiff’s young age and her ultra-Orthodox background, where premarital relations, pregnancy and abortion are socially and morally forbidden. He rejected the defendants’ claim that it was only a prank inspired by a television series, saying the law does not protect such a reason for defamation.

The plaintiff testified that the publication upended her life, saying she felt as if “my soul left my body” and that it was “as if I was shot.” She said she stopped inviting friends, cut ties with some of them, and did not return to school regularly. She also said she feared the false rumors would hurt her chances of marrying because such matters could come up in shidduch conversations.

Lang noted that even though only a relatively small group saw the posts, they reached teachers and caused major turmoil in the school. He also criticized the defendants for not apologizing after the victim asked them to. The judge rejected any claim that the school was to blame for allowing smartphones, holding the students themselves responsible for the publication.