Tel Aviv mayor sues Miri Regev for NIS 500,000 in defamation suit

Ron Huldai claims Likud minister ‘intentionally lied and distorted the facts’ about him in order to score political points ahead of the last election

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai filed a half million shekel ($140,000) defamation lawsuit against newly appointed Transportation Minister Miri Regev Monday, claiming that the Likud lawmaker knowingly lied about him ahead of the most recent Knesset election in order to score political points.

In the lawsuit filed at the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Magistrate’s Court, Huldai claims that Regev spread “fake news” and “wild incitement” as part of “a campaign that [she] has been waging against [the mayor] for a long time.”

The lawsuit refers to comments Regev made to Likud activists and MKs at a campaign event in February where she claimed that Huldai had banned people from donning tefillin, or phylacteries, at stands in the coastal city he heads. In truth, the lawsuit notes, the administrative decision — made without Huldai’s involvement — prevented the placement of various types of stalls, including prayer stalls, within 100 meters of schools.

Nonetheless, Regev, who at the time served as culture and sports minister, accused Huldai of preventing religious freedom, likening him to regimes throughout history that have persecuted Jews.

Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai attends the annual international Municipal Innovation Conference in Tel Aviv February 19, 2020. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

“Do you know that the mayor of Tel Aviv announced that he would not allow tefillin on the street — simply delusional. Is there an Israeli, Jewish, religious, secular person who does not connect with this thing called tefillin? There is no such thing,” Regev was quoted as saying. “Where Jews were persecuted, they put on tefillin in secret. And here in the State of Israel, Tel Aviv will not allow us to put on tefillin? Such shame and disgrace. There is nothing more Jewish than putting on tefillin.”

According to the lawsuit, not only did Regev “intentionally lie and distort the facts,” she repeated the claims on a number of occasions, including on national television, and refused to retract her comments when presented with the “correct details.”

The court must “convey a clear and determined message to Regev and other elected officials that the false culture that pollutes public discourse must be put to an end,” the lawsuit demands.

Filing the lawsuit, Huldai announced that if he wins, the money, minus legal fees, will be donated to the secular yeshiva in Tel Aviv.