Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, filed a lawsuit Sunday seeking 1 million shekels ($270,000) in compensation from Roee Rosen, a driver who secretly recorded him and his friends while they were strip club hopping and then released the recording.
The tapes, which included a joking conversation about the state's controversial natural gas deal as well as disparaging comments about women, were broadcast on the Hadashot television news edition in January.
In the tape, Yair Netanyahu is heard conversing with two friends – Nir Maimon, the son of gas tycoon Kobi Maimon, and Roman Abramov, who represents Australian billionaire James Packer in Israel.
In the recording, which set off shock waves when it was first released, the three friends, likely drunk, can be heard discussing the thousands of shekels they had spent on lap dances that evening, and Netanyahu appears to offer his friends sexual favors from a woman he was seeing in exchange for money.
Netanyahu's lawsuit charges that the plaintiff, despite being the prime minister's son, is not himself a public figure and did not choose the loss of privacy that public life entails. "Netanyahu," the lawsuit states, "is an entirely private individual, whose father's position forces him to make personal sacrifices."
"Under these unique circumstances," the lawsuit continues, "individuals who provide services to the plaintiff are ten times more obligated to maintain secrecy and loyalty. These individuals must do everything in their power to inspire a sense of security and allow the plaintiff to behave naturally, as though the driver weren't next to him."
"Any deviation from this obligation constitutes a serious violation against the plaintiff, and not just against him, but also against the interests of the general Israeli public," the lawsuit alleges.
In the suit, Netanyahu charges that Rosen, who was his personal driver during the time the recording was made, breached his trust, violated his privacy, defamed him and caused him severe mental anguish – all for personal financial gain.
