Court acquits woman accused of slapping, threatening minister

A woman arrested in 2024 for allegedly assaulting Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman at a Rehovot shopping center is cleared in the city’s Magistrate’s Court of all charges, with the judge criticizing the lawmaker and police over the case.

Silman claimed that Yarden Mann, a 52-year-old anti-government activist, slapped and threatened her during a confrontation in January 2024, leading to her being thrown in jail for several days.

The judge in the case notes that prosecution witnesses appeared to change their stories, with Silman herself “struggling to give reasonable testimony.”

The judge accuses police of shoddy work in collecting testimony about threats supposedly made against Silman during a confrontation between the two, and as for the slap that knocked Silman’s phone to the ground, determines it was the result of an involuntary reflex as Mann attempted to shield her face.

Mann denied at the time that she had attacked Silman, with her lawyer presenting CCTV footage showing them filming each other with no attack seen.

השרה עידית סילמן הגישה תלונה על תקיפה שעברה לכאורה על ידי אישה בת 52, מורה לחינוך מיוחד. המשטרה עיכבה את האישה, בחשד לתקיפה, בתיעוד נראה שהאישה מצלמת את סילמן, אבל לא תוקפת אותה בשום שלב. אז מה נסגר? pic.twitter.com/SmBnlK3SxV

— Yossi Eli (@Yossi_eli) January 24, 2024

In 2021, Silman said she was physically harassed at a gas station in Modiin, but investigators closed their probe after they failed to find witnesses to confirm the incident.