[...]
The press is perceived as the one responsible for collecting information and publishing it to the public, and it is not for nothing that it has been nicknamed "the Fourth Authority" or "the watchdog of democracy"..."
For these reasons, I determine that the State is liable by vicarious liability by virtue of Article 13 to the Torts Ordinance for Steif's wrongful conduct.
Factual and Legal Causal Connection
- The defendants claimed a complete severance of the causal, factual and legal connection. First, it was the Ben Gurion Airport affair that caused significant damage to Naveh's image and in any case led to a decrease in the scope of the firm's activity. In addition, Naveh's "fall" and the damage to his reputation and livelihood were caused solely by his actions and his improper and criminal conduct. In addition, the causal connection was severed by an "intervening foreign entity", such as the police investigation that was conducted lawfully and with authority and leaks by third parties.
On the other hand, according to Naveh, there is a close causal link, factual and legal, between the defendants' wrongs and his damages, since if it were not for the hacking of his phones, the transfer of the materials and their distribution, he would not have suffered any damage. According to Naveh, previous events such as the interview on the "Uvda" program, his previous conduct, or the Ben Gurion Airport affair, in which the verdict was handed down only on September 20,2022, do not sever the causal connection to the heavy damage caused by the publication that broke out with great noise at the beginning of 2019. According to Naveh, the police investigation does not constitute an "intervening foreign entity", since it and the leak of the materials are exactly the type of probable and obvious risk that the defendants created in their actions and that they should have actually anticipated.
- The examination of a causal connection will be done on two levels:
On the factual level, the existence of a factual causal connection will be examined in a case where the fault of the tortfeasor is the cause of the damage (Article 64 to the Torts Ordinance; Civil Appeal 8650/08 Rafalov v. State of Israel, Israel Prison Service, paragraph 32 (Nevo, July 17,2013);