Attorneys: Lawsuit is ‘meritless,’ ‘destined for dismissal’
Attorneys say a defamation lawsuit filed by an aspiring rabbi claiming a social media publish along with his picture falsely recognized him with the non secular group Jews for Jesus is “meritless” and “destined for dismissal.”
The controversy stems from a social media publish by Jews for Jesus following the Oct. 7 assaults in Israel, wherein the group used a royalty-free inventory picture of an Israeli soldier to focus on their efforts to distribute Bibles. The case, initially filed within the Superior Courtroom of San Francisco County, was lately moved to the U.S. District Courtroom within the Northern District of California, the place Liberty Counsel, the authorized group representing the defendants, intends to combat what they name a baseless declare rooted in a blurred inventory photograph.
The plaintiff, Ariel Amitay, an Orthodox Jewish instructor, alleges that he’s the soldier within the photograph and claims that its use by Jews for Jesus falsely implied his affiliation with the group.
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“He claims to be Orthodox and that the image is of him to start with and that it implied, though it was blurred, that he was affiliated with Jews for Jesus, and he claims that that precipitated him hurt amongst his group in Israel,” Liberty Counsel’s Daniel J. Schmid, affiliate vice chairman of authorized affairs, advised CP on Friday.
In accordance with attorneys, Amitay asserts that this misrepresentation led to his termination from his “dream” instructing job, accusing Jews for Jesus of a “willful, malicious, and oppressive” act to “shame, defame, and injure” him.
The inventory photograph in query was sourced from a preferred web site providing tens of millions of pictures below a worldwide copyright license, permitting free use, modification, and distribution with out attribution, in response to Liberty Counsel. Regardless of this, Amitay alleges defamation and false mild portrayal, though his face was blurred and his identify was by no means talked about.
“The query is whether or not they mentioned something about this particular person in any respect, and so they took steps to blur his face after which did not say that this explicit particular person is a member of our group or affiliated with us in any manner, form or kind,” mentioned Schmidt. “They used it in a social media publish saying, hey, this is what we now have accomplished after the atrocities of October 7, to help those that may want consolation and peace throughout a turbulent time, and so they did not say something about this explicit particular person.”
Whereas Amitay is an Israeli resident, the case falls below U.S. jurisdiction because it was filed in California. Schmidt says his group will file a movement to dismiss and expressed confidence within the case’s consequence. “I feel we stand on very agency First Modification grounds and different defenses that we’ll elevate, and I feel this go well with is meritless, it’s destined for dismissal, appropriately.”
Jews for Jesus, a faith-based nonprofit group affiliated with the Messianic Jewish motion, is a corporation devoted to serving to Jewish folks proceed residing out their religion whereas believing in Jesus because the Son of God. The group engages in conversations about Jesus in public areas like school campuses and parks and hosts occasions to create alternatives for dialogue.
The group states that it’s dedicated to demonstrating Christ-like conduct by charitable acts, equivalent to soup kitchens and ministering to Holocaust survivors throughout their final days of life.
Jews for Jesus provides the New Testomony without spending a dime to Israelis by its web site and the websites of its ministry companions, One for Israel or Tree of Life Ministries. In accordance with information offered to CP final June, the group has seen 1,230 New Testomony orders from Israelis for the reason that warfare between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas started in October of 2023.
