Defamation trial of firebrand Likud MK repeatedly interrupted by clashes with judge, crowd outbursts

The opening day of the trial in a defamation suit filed by activist Shikma Bressler against Likud MK Tally Gotliv gets off to a chaotic start as the firebrand lawmaker repeatedly clashes with the judge and her supporters interrupt proceedings.

Bressler filed a NIS 2.6 million ($715,000) defamation suit against Gotliv, after the controversial lawmaker repeatedly circulated unfounded claims that connected the protest leader with the Hamas terror group and its deadly October 7 onslaught.

Gotliv, who is representing herself, repeatedly interrupts the judge, telling him he has no jurisdiction over her as a lawamker. “Your honor can’t tell me what to do. It’s not logical, your honor doesn’t have the ability of the jurisdiction the define my duties [as an MK],” she says.

Her supporters also frequently interrupt proceedings, chanting that Bressler, a leader of the anti-judicial overhaul protests, is an “enemy of the people.”

The crowd is egged on by Gotliv who calls them “the people of Israel at their finest.”

The judge briefly adjourns the trial due to the disruptions.

The claim focuses on Gotliv’s repeated allegations, first circulated in a social media post in October, that US intelligence agencies had intercepted a conversation between Bressler’s partner, a public servant, and Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar. According to the conspiracy theory, Mossad head David Barnea had summoned Bressler for a meeting as a result of the intelligence, days before the October 7 attacks on southern Israel which saw Hamas-led terrorists kill some 1,200 people and kidnap 251 to the Gaza Strip.

Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the Likud party, and the Mossad spy agency have repeatedly and forcfully denied the claims.