Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed today (Sunday) the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court ruling that journalist Yigal Sarna must pay him and his wife Sara one hundred thousand shekels, after Sarna posted on his Facebook page that the prime minister's motorcade was forced to stop on the side of Highway 1 due to an argument between the couple, and that Sara Netanyahu ordered her husband to get out of the car.
The judge ruled that Sarna would compensate the prime minister with 60,000 NIS and his wife with 40,000 NIS. In addition, Sarna was ordered to pay the couple's lawyers' fees, totaling 15,000 NIS. In the lawsuit, the couple demanded 279,000 NIS in damages from Sarna for defamation.
Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page: "Truth and justice have triumphed today over the endless hunting campaign that has been waged against me, my wife, and my family for over 20 years.".
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He said, "If we were to sue everyone who slanders us, we would be in court every day. But I have a country to run and my wife is engaged in public activity and works as an educational psychologist in the Jerusalem municipal service.".
""In one of the few cases in which we found the time to defend our good name and file a lawsuit against yet another lie being published against us - the court exposed the system and ruled in favor of the truth.".
Netanyahu added: "On behalf of myself and my wife, I would like to thank you for your support. We draw great strength and encouragement from you. Thanks to you, we are able to stand up to the campaign of lies and slander. The truth has triumphed today - and it will continue to triumph!""
In a post that Serena published on Facebook in March 2016, the following was written, among other things: "...when at night (an event that happened) the Prime Minister's heavy convoy is stopped, four black vehicles and more and more security guards and protectors and vehicles, and out of it in the dark, onto Highway 1, screaming, a man who is not a young man who is the cause of everything, because one woman does not want him to stay in the car with her and makes a mockery of all the security and, in fact, the entire country, it's part of life...".
Journalist Yigal Sarna, on the other hand, said that he intends to appeal the ruling. "I will say this to all those concerned - this is an expected ruling in these dark days," he said. "But this is only the beginning of the struggle against the silencing claim, against the silencing of the security apparatus and the general silencing that is descending upon us. If I were the Netanyahus, I would really not rush to buy a new cooking stove. We are on our way to the next court.".
