Diner sues IDF soldiers for defamation on Facebook

The owners of “HaTeymania Shel Nabi Musa” (loosely translated: Nabi Musa's Yemeni Eatery), the eatery adjacent to the IDF base near Ma’ale Adumim (a town nearby Jerusalem), recently filed a 1.5 million Shekels (approximately US$430,000) defamation suit against 17 of the military base’s soldiers. The couple that owns the eatery claim that several years ago, the soldiers opened a Facebook group that published disparaging remarks about the subpar food quality at the eatery. The remarks alleged that the female owner exudes cruelty to the soldiers and that the eatery sells food at exorbitant prices, taking advantage of the fact that there are no other eating establishments nearby. The owners claim that following the alleged derogatory Facebook postings, base commanders forbade the soldiers to dine at the eatery and that "a sign was hung on the gate of the base, forbidding the soldiers to visit the establishment.” The couple further claims that the commanders’ orders alone caused them damages of approximately 400,000 Shekels (approximately US$115,000). An attorney for one of the defendant-soldiers said that he rejects the legal arguments of the couple and regrets that they are “trying to get rich at the expense of those who served the country as combat soldiers, and who the plaintiff’s earned their living off of for an extended period of time.” Source: mynet (In Hebrew, by: Roi Yanovsky).