As Haim Giladi put it in his Tuesday report in HaKol HaYehudi, the root problem in this story is that it is an attempt to discuss the issue of binational tension when it is forbidden to talk about binational tension.
A defamation lawsuit was recently filed in a Tel Aviv court against four residents of Caesarea and one resident of Pardes Hanna. The lawsuit was brought by a man who sold his home in Caesarea (the Netanyahu family’s permanent home) to Arab businessman Bassam Dabbah whose family of meat wholesalers controls an estimated 60% of the kosher market in Israel. As a result of the sale, the Jewish seller has faced numerous attacks.
This marks the latest chapter in a controversy that began unfolding in Caesarea about six months ago. At that time, news spread in the community that a house in the Golf neighborhood had been sold to one of the younger members of the Dabbah family. Opposition to the sale grew among local residents, and when the transaction was finalized, tensions escalated—ultimately leading some of the involved parties to face legal action.
As an aside, only approximately one-third of the voters in Caesarea voted for a right-wing party in the last national election.
The Dabbah family hails from the village of Deir al-Assad in Upper Galilee and is considered an economic powerhouse. They own the parent company Salah Dabbah & Sons along with several subsidiary businesses. The family is involved in the entire meat supply chain, from importing and raising livestock to slaughtering and marketing meat. In addition, they operate restaurants and event halls. Bassam Dabbah, one of three brothers, owns the family’s slaughterhouse and a live transport vessel capable of carrying thousands of cattle and sheep (from Argentina and Australia – DI).
The purchase of the luxury house by an Arab Muslim buyer from such a powerful family sparked concerns and anger among neighborhood residents. A heated discussion took place in a local WhatsApp group, where some expressed resentment toward the seller and voiced concerns about the neighborhood’s future.
While Dabbah’s future neighbors had no real means to influence the composition of their non-communal community, many channeled their frustration into negative remarks. However, the discussion also gave rise to more active resistance efforts, including calls for a boycott and pressure campaigns. Now, those who accused the Dabbah family—and, by extension, the seller—of facilitating the family’s entry into Caesarea through an untoward transaction are facing a defamation lawsuit.
Residents also attacked the seller personally, expressing their rage that he was allowed to attend the synagogue where he had been a regular for years. Loud demonstrations were held in front of his house, disturbingly reminiscent of the anti-Netanyahu Kaplan rallies – possibly because they engaged the same people.
As I noted at the opening, the discussion surrounding the entry of a powerful Arab Muslim family into the neighborhood could not explicitly address issues of national identity or fears of assimilation. Instead, it relied on a variety of arguments—most of which were difficult to substantiate. In the end, some participants in the neighborhood discourse became so contentious that they now find themselves facing legal action.
DEFAMATION NATION
Here are a few examples: a letter was circulated calling on the Caesarea Development Company to vet the buyer to “prevent terror sympathizers from purchasing land in Caesarea.” There was no foundation whatsoever to the letter. Other residents alleged that the Dabbah family is a crime family and that they left the owner no choice but to sell them his property. One defendant wrote that the house was actually sold to the Abu Latif crime family.
But wait, there was more: another claim was that the price, NIS 18 million ($5 million), was in reality higher, and included millions that were paid in cash. One defendant went so far as to say that financing for the deal came from Arab countries, which are working to settle Arabs inside the Green Line.
A few members of the WhatsApp group admitted that they were worried that entire clans of wealthy Arabs would take over their shiny pearl on the sandy shore of the Mediterranean.
One woman distributed signs that read “Fighting for the Home,” cleverly combining the real estate deal with post-October 7 slogans. Other signs called to prevent the sale of homes in Caesarea to “foreign entities,” which is pretty racist considering the Dabbahs are Israeli taxpayers. Some defendants called for a business boycott of the seller, who is a real estate agent. They persuaded local homeowners not to list their properties work with him, and to remove his signs from their front lawns.
Several of the seller’s signs were indeed removed by one defendant, and one sign was defaced with the word “Garbage” spray-painted on it.
Despite all of the above, the sale of the house was completed and Bassam Dabbah is now the legal owner. It is reasonable to assume that the seller will win the defamation lawsuit and the protesters will lose. However, if the suit goes to trial rather than be settled outside the court, the trial would enter evidentiary hearings, and the defendants would have to prove their accusations against the Dabbah family. It is possible that at that junction additional information would be revealed to the public.
