BYE BYE GAZA - Barry Chamish

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provocateur." I viewed the trial as nothing but a nuisance
because Eskin's claims were so stupid. Quoting a nearly
seven year old paragraph which appeared in an obscure
American web site with no Israeli readers, this liar claimed
that he was damaged. And it only took him seven years to
feel the pain.
My attorney, Dov Eben-Or wrote my defense argument and
quoted Israeli law which puts the onus of responsibility on
the publisher in such cases, not the writer.
So what did Judge Chaim Lakhovitzky do? He changed the
law. In an incredibly long-winded ruling, he declared that
because the Internet is based on forwarded messages, web
site owners cannot be responsible for damages the way a
newspaper is by law. From now on in Israel, writers who post
on the Internet are liable for any message they write.
I raced to Dov's office to see the protocols. They made
incredible reading. They were not merely wrong, they
recorded the exact opposite of what I actually testified to. Not
only did I testify that I could not know if I sent the 'offending
paragraph' to the obscure web site, I took special pains to
stress that I owned no web site, thus I did not publish on the
internet, I merely write on it. The protocols changed my
testimony drastically, having me admit to publishing on the
internet.
No wonder it took a week to release the verdict. The time
was needed to rewrite the court records to make the ruling fit
the law.
But I had an advantage. A friend sat with me at the trial and
was a witness to the forged protocols. Dov spoke to her and
she agreed to sign a declaration that the court protocols had
nothing to do with my testimony.
Time was tight. The Hebrew Book Fair had just begun, and I
would be manning a booth for the next nine working days.