Down But Not Out: Ben Gvir Sues Shafir for Libel, Again

He may have lost the election, but attorney Itamar Ben Gvir is far from finished with politics – or politicians. His latest target is Democratic Camp MK Stav Shafir. She is the subject of a lawsuit by Ben Gvir, who has accused her of libel. Ben Gvir is demanding NIS 200,000 in compensation.

The lawsuit specifies a number of incidents in which Ben Gvir said he was libeled. The first incident was in an interview with Army Radio in August, when Shafir claimed that Ben Gvir had “sent people to threaten me” in the context of the election.

During the interview, Shafir criticized host Rino Tzror for interviewing Ben Gvir on his program, and afterwards wrote in a social media post that “I am not saying it’s the same thing but I guess they would interview Adolf Hitler too.” The lawsuit states that, on the basis of that statement, Shafir not only defamed Ben Gvir, but also hurt the feelings of Holocaust survivors and insulted the members of Holocaust victims’ families.

In another incident, Shafir repeated in another interview just six days before the September election that Ben Gvir was “sending his goons to attack me.” This statement, repeated twice and with no evidence offered, was designed to defame him, Ben Gvir said in the lawsuit.

Shafir has 30 days to file a defense motion. It should be noted that this is not the first time Ben Gvir is suing Shafir, and there is currently an outstanding lawsuit against her in the Yerushalayim District Court, over her equation of Ben Gvir and former MK Michael Ben Ari as “Nazis.” Ben Gvir is demanding over a half-million shekels in compensation for that insult.