Protest leader demands Likud MK retract ‘delusional conspiracy’ of Mossad meeting

Shikma Bressler calls MK Tally Gotliv’s unfounded claims linking her to October 7 events ‘a collection of blatant and malicious lies,’ urges her to give up parliamentary immunity

Protest leader Shikma Bressler speaks to reporters during a protest against the judicial overhaul in Tel Aviv on July 18, 2023. (Jack Gueez/AFP)
Protest leader Shikma Bressler speaks to reporters during a protest against the judicial overhaul in Tel Aviv on July 18, 2023. (Jack Gueez/AFP)

Protest leader Shikma Bressler demanded that Likud MK Tally Gotliv retract a “delusional conspiracy theory” against opponents of the government’s judicial overhaul, in a letter from her legal counsel publicized in Hebrew media on Friday and called on the lawmaker to give up parliamentary immunity

“For months you (Gotliv) have been publishing complete fabrications about our client,” Bressler’s attorneys charged in the letter, referring to unfounded claims by Gotliv that Mossad head David Barnea had met with the protest leader days before Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.

The claim was forcibly denied by the Mossad both at the time and again on Wednesday when Gotliv repeated the claim.

In the letter published Friday, Bressler, a leader of last year’s protests against the Netanyahu coalition’s planned judicial overhaul, called the allegations “a collection of blatant and malicious lies,” and said it was “intolerable and unforgivable” that they be promoted by a public official.

She also called on Gotliv to give up her parliamentary immunity so that she could be sued for her libel. Gotliv refused.

Gotliv’s latest posts included a screenshot of an article from a fringe site known for pushing false conspiracies. The headline in the screenshot claimed Barnea had “received a message from the Americans that they intercepted conversations between Shikma Bressler’s husband from the Shin Bet to Yahya Sinwar” four days before the Hamas-led massacres, when some thousands of terrorists killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped over 250 hostages, mostly civilians. Sinwar is the terror group’s top leader in Gaza.

In her letter, the activist slammed the Likud MK for “making [Bressler’s] partner a convenient target for the conspiracy theories you chose to spread.”

Following the series of social media posts, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar issued a strongly worded letter against Gotliv, accusing her of endangering the lives of security services personnel and their families by publishing their personal details.

Likud MK Tally Gotliv speaks in the Knesset, Jerusalem on January 22, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“National security cannot be used as a tool in a foolish attempt to get public attention,” Bar wrote, charging that Gotliv had broken both criminal and civil law with her posts.

He also accused the Likud MK of “knowingly and intentionally” harming national security and said her actions were causing security services to devote greater time and resources to protecting their members.

The Likud lawmaker first posted the conspiracy theory about a meeting between Barnea and Bressler on October 3.

“It’s a good thing I have immunity and judicial orders don’t apply to me,” wrote Gotliv at the time, asking: “Can someone explain this meeting? It’s not innocuous, otherwise it wouldn’t be subject to a gag order.”

Her claim was similarly denied at the time by the Mossad as “complete fake news.”

Since entering the Knesset after elections in November 2022, Gotliv has established a reputation for making incendiary claims, such as accusing the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet of “working for terrorists.”

The Mossad has denied previous reports linking it to the mass demonstrations against the government’s plans to weaken the judiciary, including US intelligence documents leaked in April purporting to show senior officials in the spy agency helped stir the protests. The intelligence agency at the time dismissed the reports as “completely false and absurd.”

Bressler, a renowned physicist, shot to national prominence as one of the most visible and articulate leaders of the nationwide protest movement that sprung up over the last year against the government’s judicial overhaul plans that critics said would undermine democracy in Israel.

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