Court rejects libel suit against Israel Hayom

A Tel Aviv court on Wednesday rejected a libel suit filed by a former Magen David Adom emergency medical service employee against Israel Hayom and the paper's staff reporters Mordechai Gilat, Uzi Dayan and Michal Shabat.

The suit focused on two mentions of the plaintiff, attorney Hezi Tzuriel, in a 2010 series of articles criticizing the Magen David Adom organization. In one instance, it was claimed that the plaintiff had delayed in answering an emergency call, and in the other instance it was reported that he used an ambulance to transport rocks to his home garden.

Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court Judge Ronit Pinchuk-Alt agreed with the defendants that the story in question was true and that the paper was justified in printing it due to public interest. She ordered the plaintiff, attorney Hezi Tzuriel, to pay the defendants' legal costs at 15,000 shekels ($3,900).

Though Tzuriel's name did not appear in any of the articles, he nonetheless filed a suit against Gilat, Dayan, Shabat and Israel Hayom demanding 250,000 shekels ($65,000) and a printed apology. He argued that the reporting was untrue and that he and his family had been humiliated.

The Israel Hayom defense team presented proof of the veracity of the reports as well as the testimonies of various witnesses including then-MDA director in Jerusalem Yonatan Yagodovsky.

At the time, Yagodovsky investigated the plaintiff's allegations and filed a written conclusion. In his remarks, he wrote "I know that you tried to coerce [MDA] workers to change their testimony regarding the incident and its details."

The judge concluded that the plaintiff's version "evolved" throughout the trial and she pointed to a number of inconsistencies. She ruled that both reports were true and rejected the plaintiff's claim that the report was unjustified.

Responding to the plaintiff's claim that the reports were five years old and therefore irrelevant, the judge said, "I don't accept this claim. There cannot be any doubt that criticism of the conduct of an institution like MDA and its employees is of interest to the public. The fact that the acts were committed five years earlier is irrelevant because the articles reported ongoing behavior."

The MDA organization also filed a libel suit against the newspaper and its reporters for 5 million shekels ($1.3 million). That suit was rescinded under a plea agreement. Neither side was ordered to pay a penalty.

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