Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Bloggers sued in Israel by Tel Aviv municiplaity and social workers for Incitement and Libel

Haaretz  The Tel Aviv municipality and a group of social workers are suing media giants Facebook and Google, and two bloggers who persistently criticize the judicial system and welfare authorities, alleging that they are guilty of libel, incitement and invasion of privacy.

In the suit, filed in Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court by the municipality and eight social workers against Facebook, Google, blogging website WordPress and bloggers Lory Shem-Tov and Moti Leybel, the plaintiffs asked the court to order the defendants to “stop the publication of libel, sexual harassment, violations of privacy and more” that target the plaintiffs.

They also want the companies to remove “all the website and/or Facebook profiles that are besmirching the plaintiffs.”

Shem-Tov and Leybel are well known for their online campaigns against social workers and welfare agencies who remove children from homes. In their blogs and on their Facebook pages, they sharply criticize judges and social workers by name, and their posts often use crude language against their targets.

The suit cites instances in which the websites refer to social workers as mentally ill, sluts, “the face of pure evil,” and more.

Every website and/or Facebook profile they operate gets wide exposure on the internet, such that the harm to the social workers grows every day,” the Tel Aviv municipality said in a statement. “Every time one of the employees’ names is typed into Google’s search engine, the surfer is exposed to abominable and hateful words.”

The suit challenges the claim by Shem-Tov and Leybel that they are journalists. “Defendants 7 and 8 [Shem-Tov and Leybel] see themselves as journalists, but their stories use malicious expressions that are sexual, abusive and crudely attack their rivals and the families of their rivals,” the suit states.[...]

Leybel told Haaretz that the suits against him were baseless and false.

"As of late, a number of different people, including lawyers and social workers, have begun undertaking actst of 'cast thy bread upon the waters,' filing baseless and hopeless lawsuits. In these suits, they blame me for advertisements on websites that I have no connection with, and written in a tone that I never thought I would be accused of using," he said.

"For example, there have been recent reports of one such suit for half a million shekel by lawyer Hava Klein against me, she and her lawyer immediately ran to the press to publish reports that she had won half a million shekels from me, but after less than a month the ruling was nullified and of course no one was interested [to report it].

"After reviewing all off the suit's articles, it became clear that once again people are suing me for things published in websites I have no connection with, and, according to the information I have, the suit is rife with lies to the court and in trial they will be proven as such. A libel suit will be filed in response to end this saga," he added.

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