More than a year after removing signs commemorating the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was murdered in NY City in 1990, an advertising company will pay right-wing activist Baruch Marzel $10,000 in compensation for its unethical behavior in 2017, Kipa reported Tuesday.
In November 2017, Marzel and members of Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) posted a sign at the entrance to Jerusalem announcing the annual commemoration of the murder of Rabbi Kahane. The sign was removed by the ad company a short while later, under what Marzel et al say was political pressures from the left.
Members of Otzma Yehudit sued the company for breach of contract at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, demanding compensation to the tune of hundreds of thousands of shekels. The suit, filed by attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir, claimed the company “surrendered to the threats of radical leftist organizations and to political pressure, and unilaterally, without even informing the plaintiff, removed the sign.”
“Only after the sign was removed did the CEO bothered to inform the Plaintiff that the sign had been removed.”
The suit stressed that “the text of the sign had been approved ahead of time by all the relevant entities in the Jerusalem municipality, including the legal counsel department, because said sign did not pose legal problem, and in effect the sign was removed solely for political reasons.”
The parties reached a compromise agreed on compensation to the amount NIS 38,000, or $10,100.
Attorney Ben-Gvir said “the money received will be used by the Otzma Yehudit movement for a new outdoors campaign in memory of Rabbi Meir Kahane. Let every advertising company know that freedom of expression is valid for right-wing activists, too, and if they violate a contract or discriminates against us, they would have to pay and endure the costs.”