Court orders Yair Netanyahu to post NIS 20,000 to cover journalist's legal expenses

The Tel Aviv-Jaffa Magistrate's Court ruled on Monday that Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, must post a bond of NIS 20,000 for the legal expenses of a journalist of the Behaderey Haredim news outlet.

This comes amid the ongoing defamation lawsuit filed against Yair Netanyahu and the Likud by Haaretz journalist Yossi Klein. The reason for the lawsuit was that the younger Netanyahu shared a post on X from Behaderey Haredim alleging that Klein wrote in his column that the anti-judicial reform protesters went home feeling upset because blood wasn't shed. Klein actually wrote that the protesters went home feeling upset but also with a sense of relief, and no blood was shed. 

After Klein sued Netanyahu, he sent a third-party notice requiring a third party to pay the legal expenses of the journalist for Bahedery Haredim. The news outlet then asked for the court to order Netanyahu to give a deposit of NIS 20,000 for these legal fees. 

Why does Yair Netanyahu have to cover a journalist's legal fees?

Judge Ronen Ilan agreed to the request of the Bahedery Haredim journalist, who noted that Yair Netanyahu doesn't live in Israel and has no domestic assets or sources of income. 

"The lawsuit is based on the allegation of Netanyahu's post, where he shared a previous post by a journalist, which Klein alleges was defamatory. The notice to the third party is based on the claim that if the original post was defamation, then the person who reshared it is responsible too," Ilan wrote.