Kibbutz Nir David sued the administrator of a public protest group on Facebook regarding access to the Hasi Stream, as part of a defamation lawsuit that was primarily based on things posted by others in the group he managed.
The court rejected the request to strike out the claim outright, due to the lack of evidentiary basis. A silencing claim is one whose main purpose is to create a deterrent against publishing criticism, by conducting the legal process itself regardless of its outcome, and therefore constitutes an abuse of legal proceedings and can be struck out outright even if there is a cause of action. When there are indications that it is a silencing claim but also difficulty in deciding this at the beginning of the proceedings, the plaintiff must be warned that if it turns out to be a silencing claim, expenses will be assessed at a high rate and in direct proportion to the amount claimed, and he must be allowed not to continue the proceedings. Here, it is a case in which it was not possible to determine that it was a silencing claim without completing factual inquiries. Consequently, the request to strike out the claim outright was rejected, with the plaintiffs being warned that if it turns out to be a silencing claim, they will be required to pay high expenses and they were given the opportunity to amend the amount of the claim.
