The Jerusalem District Court rejected today (Sunday) an appeal by Tareq Abbas, son of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), in a defamation lawsuit against Middle East expert Dr. Reuven Berko. Abbas, who sought damages of NIS 500,000 ($141,000) regarding a television interview given by Berko, will now be required to pay legal expenses of NIS 20,000 ($5,640).
The case centered on an Arabic language interview where Dr. Berko discussed Tareq Abbas' business activities. Berko asserted that he owns multiple companies and characterized the Abbas family as "full of money." He further stated that "without security coordination, their presence in the Authority's territory would be short-lived," and claimed that Abbas' family members "arrived here with nothing and became millionaires."
In a detailed verdict, Judge Ram Winograd, Vice President of the District Court, found that the lawsuit relied solely on edited portions of the original interview, downloaded from a Gaza news site. "The alteration of how statements were made, and potentially their sequence and substance, prevents the court from evaluating the publication as a whole," the judge wrote.
A crucial aspect of the ruling addressed Tareq Abbas' allegation that the statements portrayed him as collaborating with Israel. The court firmly rejected this claim, stating that Israeli courts do not consider statements about cooperation with Israel as defamatory. Judge Winograd stated: "This claim cannot be sustained as an Israeli court cannot view such expressions as defamation."
The proceedings revealed that contrary to Abbas' initial assertion, the interview was not aired on an Israeli channel but was distributed through a Gaza news site. Berko maintained that in the complete interview, he had actually commended the Abbas family, and his statements were presented without proper context.
Judges Shoshana Leibowitz and Tamar Bar-Asher concurred with Judge Winograd's decision. Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of the "Shurat HaDin" organization representing Berko, commented: "This is another failed attempt at silencing by Abu Mazen's [Mahmoud Abbas] son. Let all those who wish us harm and try to intimidate our rights, especially in these days, know that justice is on our side, and it will ultimately come to light."
