Bennett sues former ally, now a Likud minister, for libel over claim he is mentally unwell |
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett filed a defamation suit Thursday against Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, Religious Zionism MK Ohad Tal and Channel 14 for NIS 2 million ($690,000) on Thursday, accusing them of making and publishing “grave falsehoods” that constitute libel.
The lawsuit centers around a recording of Silman, formerly a member of Bennett’s now-defunct Yamina party, who served as coalition whip during his 2021-2022 government, in which she claims that Bennett was mentally unstable and heavily medicated while serving as prime minister.
The recording was aired on Monday by the conservative pro-government Channel 14, and then circulated further by Tal, a member of Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, which got its start within Bennett’s Yamina alliance but which split off in January 2021.
Bennett has denied the allegations, charging in his libel suit that Silman made up the accusation to justify abandoning Yamina, toppling the previous government and throwing her lot in with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud.
In the recording, Silman can be heard telling a group of activists that throughout his short-lived premiership, Bennett “did not function,” and was constantly “confused and stuttering.”
“In my opinion, in general, he was in a really, really poor mental state — everyone around him knew,” she asserted.
“Everyone around him knew about it,” Silman reiterated. “They would bring him pills in all kinds of red boxes, just so that he could function.”
She further claimed that for the duration of Bennett’s brief term, the Prime Minister’s Office was........