Yair Netanyahu sues former driver over NIS 1 m. for secret recording

Netanyahu said in his claim the recording was an invasion of his privacy and, as Rozen was not taking part in the conversation, he had no right to record him.

By TAMARA ZIEVE, HAGAY HACOHEN
Updated: NOVEMBER 11, 2018 17:48
Yair Netanyahu (photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)
Yair Netanyahu
(photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)
Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, filed a lawsuit on Sunday against Roee Rozen, the driver who secretly recorded a conversation he had with a friend in 2015 which was leaked to the public by Channel 2 earlier this year.
Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, filed a lawsuit on Sunday against Roie Rozen, the driver who secretly recorded a conversation he had with a friend in 2015 which was leaked to the public by Channel 2 earlier this year.
Netanyahu said in his claim that the recording was an invasion of his privacy, and that as Rozen was not taking part in the conversation, he had no right to record him and thus his action constitutes wiretapping. Netanyahu is represented by attorney Amit Hadad of Hadad Rott and Co.
The recorded conversation took place between Netanyahu and Ori Maimon, the son of natural gas tycoon Kobi Maimon, as they were on their way to a strip club.
Among other things, Netanyahu could be heard telling Maimon: “My father arranged for your father a $20 billion windfall and you can’t spot me NIS 400 [to pay a stripper]?”
The lawsuit filed by Hadad at the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court notes that the young Netanyahu “is not a public person and never chose for himself a role which entails losing privacy and anonymity.”
Thus, he said, those who provide services to Netanyahu have an obligation to give him a sense of security and to allow him to act naturally in the same way as he would if they were not with him.
Any breach of this obligation, the lawsuit continues, causes “serious harm to the plaintiff, but not only to him but also to the general interest of the entire Israeli public. The loss of trust in the envelope of services provided by the State of Israel to those who require these services by virtue of their position, is likely to cause serious harm to the state’s security.”
The lawsuit accuses Rozen of breaching Netanyahu’s trust, harming his privacy, slandering him and causing him great anguish “all for money.”
In the recorded conversation, Netanyahu spoke about strippers and his former girlfriend in an offensive manner, for which he apologized following the Channel 2 airing.
“Tonight I watched a shameful and sensationalist news story that presented unlawful and secret recordings from a conversation that took place two and a half years ago,” Netanyahu said. “In an evening conversation [conducted] under the influence of alcohol, I said ridiculous things about women and other foolish things that were better left unsaid. These words do not represent who I am, the values I was raised on or what I believe in. I regret [saying] them and apologize if anyone was hurt by them.”
Security company Modi’in Ezrachi which employed the driver, already filed a lawsuit against the driver in March, claiming that he had violated his employment contract.


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