A person's right to privacy is not in dispute and its importance, as a constitutional right, is clear, but not so its definition, which remains vague and about which it was determined that "the right to privacy is a complex right, the boundaries of which are not easy to determine" (High Court of Justice 1435/03 Anonymous v. The Disciplinary Court of State Employees in Haifa, IsrSC 58(1) 529, 539). The possibility of a violation of privacy will therefore be examined in each case according to its specific circumstances.
The violation of privacy that the plaintiff complains about is based on two details of information about him in the book: the fact that he underwent surgery to shorten the stomach; And the fact that he is diabetic. These details as characteristics of the villain character in the book are not in dispute. As noted above, the same character, "the villain", was presented by the defendant as follows (pp. 11-14 in the appendices to the plaintiff's affidavit):
"His fat fingers trembled like during one of his bouts of diabetes...
The conversation ended, but the oil felt terrible pain, the most horrible he had felt since gastric bypass surgery a few years ago..."
Once it was found that the "villain" was the plaintiff, his acquaintances, those who identified him but may not be aware of the full circumstances of his life, were also exposed to the fact that the plaintiff underwent gastric bypass surgery and was a diabetic.
These details of information, according to the plaintiff, constitute "the publication of a matter relating to the privacy of a person's personal life" and therefore also an infringement of his privacy under section 2(11) of the Protection of Privacy Law.
Information about a person's health condition is a clear and central aspect of his privacy (section 19 of the Patient's Rights Law, 5756-1996; Civil Appeals Authority 8019/06 Yedioth Ahronoth in Tax Appeal v. Meirav Levin, [published in Nevo] 13 October 2009, paragraphs 2 and 5 of the judgment of Justice A. Rubinstein; High Court of Justice 844/06 University of Haifa v. Prof. Avraham Oz, [published in Nevo] 14 May 2008, paragraph 20 of the judgment of Justice A. Hayut).