Journalist Guy Peleg Ordered to Compensate Rami Ben-Yehuda
Israeli journalist Guy Peleg was ordered to pay Likud activist Rami Ben-Yehuda 29,000 shekels for calling him a criminal on air before his actual conviction.
Journalist and legal commentator Guy Peleg has been ordered to pay Likud activist Rami Ben-Yehuda 29,000 shekels in total compensation after calling him a "criminal" during a radio broadcast, ruling Judge Shlomi Schneider.
The affair began in 2022 on a program hosted by Peleg on Radio 103FM. Peleg referred to a video published by Ben-Yehuda against the son of Liat Ben Ari, a prosecutor in the Benjamin Netanyahu trial, and wondered on air how a civilized society allows a situation where a "verbal criminal with a bully's talk" menacingly seeks out the prosecutor's son.
Following the remarks, Ben-Yehuda filed a defamation lawsuit for 70,000 shekels, arguing that he is not a criminal but a political activist. The lawsuit was filed in May 2024—several months before Ben-Yehuda was actually convicted of two counts of assault.
Peleg argued in his defense that the words were spoken colloquially, that he published a clarification the following week, and that by the time of the hearing, Ben-Yehuda had already been convicted of assaults committed prior to the broadcast. Judge Schneider rejected the defense arguments, ruling that when a senior legal correspondent uses the word "criminal," the reasonable listener understands it as a factual determination of a criminal conviction, rather than merely an expression of opinion.
Because at the time of the broadcast Ben-Yehuda had not yet been convicted, the judge ruled that the "truth was spoken" defense was invalid. Peleg was ordered to pay 18,000 shekels in compensation plus 11,000 shekels for legal expenses and attorney fees. The demand to compel Peleg to air an apology was rejected.
