Netanyahu’s Son Removed From Court as He Calls Former Lawmaker ‘A Bitch’

Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, was removed from a courtroom over behavior on Tuesday, also calling the former lawmaker suing him for defamation “a bitch.”

Netanyahu and Stav Shaffir have both filed defamation suits against each other over statements about each other on social media. Shaffir’s suit is over a pair of tweets by Netanyahu, who has been said to be influential in his father’s political decisions.

In one tweet, he accused her of allying with “a pedophile.” In another, he urged her to marry an Arab and convert to Islam. She is seeking 260,000 shekels ($75,000) in damages. Netanyahu countersued, demanding 300,000 shekels ($87,000) over four tweets about him and his father, including one in which she called him “scum.”

During the hearing of their cases at the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, Netanyahu was asked about whether he had ever visited a particular strip club, in reference to the 2018 leaking of tapes in which Netanyahu is heard drunkenly traveling to strip clubs with friends in government-funded transportation.

“There aren’t many 22-year-olds who don’t go to strip clubs,” Netanyahu said in court. “Wow, what a terrible crime.”

When Shaffir read a post she wrote regarding her financial situation, Netanyahu said: “You’re married to a billionaire. Poor you, I’m shedding tears.” Shaffir’s husband is Amit Stibbe, the son of Eytan Stibbe, said to be a billionaire. Netanyahu later said that it was “another day that my blood is being shed, [it’s] another media circus.” He claimed that the suit was meant to silence him.

At the beginning of Shaffir’s cross-examination, Netanyahu’s lawyer, Yaniv Lankri, suggested that she withdraw her suit. Shaffir rebuffed him, saying that if she thought “it would change his violent behavior,” she would consider it.

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Lankri said that Shaffir was utilizing the lawsuit in order to return to the political arena, arguing that she was the one who had initiated the confrontation. Lankri argued that “Yair vented his anger after hearing personal assaults against his family, which he can’t hold inside.”

Attorney Ehud Rosen, who represented Shaffir, said at the end of the hearing that the court had received an accurate representation of who Yair Netanyahu was. “Out of his mouth dribbles hate and words that objectify women.”

In one of the tweets at the center of the case, Netanyahu wrote: “Are you sure you want to talk about morality, given the failed project you tried to launch with a fan of pedophiles, a regular visitor to Epstein’s pedophile island? You’re ugly both inside and out.”

He also tweeted: “Find a permanent Arab husband who won’t throw you out, go to some village and convert to Islam and give us peace and quiet.” Shaffir argued in court that the tweets accused her of cooperating with criminals, and that Netanyahu’s words bordered on sexual harassment.

In one tweet over which Netanyahu has filed suit, Shaffir wrote: “I have no quarrel with such scum, only with the father who raised him. With a father who failed in raising him, now trying to make all our children fail. This is what destruction of Israeli society looks like.”