An Israeli think tank which is suing Yair Netanyahu, the 26-year-old son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has managed to get the younger man’s lawyer to call his own words ‘delusional’ after reusing the text of a lawsuit the prime minister brought against a journalist in its case against him.
Molad, a left-leaning institution which describes itself as ‘the centre for the renewal of Israeli democracy’, decided to sue the younger Mr Netanyahu for libel last week after he refused to apologise for comments in a Facebook post which branded the organisation “The Fund for the Destruction of Israel, funded by Soros and the European Union.”
He accused Molad of “threatening me in the style of the Sicilian mafia. Actually, the term Bolsheviks suits them better”.
The Netanyahus’ family lawyer Yossi Cohen called Molad’s 140,000 shekels (£30,000) suit “delusional”.
The declaration has been cause for amusement, however, since investigative magazine The Seventh Eye pointed out that large chunks of the text were borrowed from the suit Mr Cohen won for the prime minister against a journalist for Facebook posts earlier this year.
Mr Netanyahu senior won his case against Yedioth Ahronoth reporter Igal Sarna over a 2015 post in which he claimed Mrs Sara Netanyahu ordered the prime minister’s convoy to pull over on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway so she could eject him in the middle of a furious row.
Many in Israel have been left wondering how Mr Cohen plans on fighting his own - previously successful - words in Yair Netanyahu’s case.
