Your Honor, you exaggerated • "the judge has exceeded the norm for Rabbi Amnon"

The representative for public complaints against judges, Eliezer Goldberg, stated two weeks ago that the Ramle Magistrate's Court judge, Zachary Yemini, intervened beyond the usual discussion of defamation filed by Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak against a local newspaper in Modiin.

Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak filed a lawsuit against the website Modiin News, publisher Eli Danon and journalist Ayala Rota. The claim dealt with the story which occurred in 2008 when the Rabbi came to speak in Modiin. The website sent Rota and two photographers, but the photographers were not allowed to enter with the camera equipment, and just the writer entered the conference. The claim dealt with the fact that the Rabbi claims that the article which covered the conference was too critical and contrary to the truth.

According to the decision, the site was forced to pay the rabbi sum of 100 thousand shekels.

Subsequently publisher Eli Danon filed a claim to the representative for public complaints against judges, which he argued that Judge Yemini was in favor of Rabbi Yitzchak. He also added that the judge carried out a Bible Quiz on the reporter and brought her great distress, until she almost lost consciousness. With the intervention of the judge, it was claimed, he created a feeling by the reporter that she attacked him and he tends to favor the rabbi.

But the judge himself rejected the complaint, claiming that he prevented the debate slipping towards religion and faith. He also rejected the argument that he held a Bible Quiz on the reporter, and said that he brought from his office a Bible to show her the exact quote of the verse to which she addressed. He said he was aware of her situation and therefore stopped the testimony for half an hour so that she can rest.

The reporter said that she felt intense humiliation. She argued that Yemini responded dismissively and even made gestures towards Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak. To her sense, she added, the prosecution was not on the agenda, but the degree of her knowledge of Judaism.

The decision of the complaints representative, Eliezer Goldberg, which was quoted on "News 1", states that by reading the transcript of the hearing "one can see that the involvement of the Judge in the discussion went beyond the norm, resulting in a in the reporter sensing that she is under attack by the judge, which tends to favor the plaintiff. Even if there is no reasonable to rule out the involvement of the court during the hearing to clarify things, the involvement of the judge was beyond normal."

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!