Jury Gives Sharon Partial Victory in Time Libel Case

A jury gave Israeli Gen. Ariel Sharon a partial victory today in his $50-million libel suit by ruling that Time magazine defamed him in a paragraph about his actions on the eve of a massacre of Palestinians.

After returning a partial verdict in its third day of deliberations in U.S. District Court, the panel of four women and two men retired to the jury room to deliberate the two other issues.

For Sharon to win his suit, the jury must also conclude that the Time paragraph is false and that Time published it maliciously. A “mini-trial” will then be held on how much money Time must pay Sharon.

If the jury returns only one verdict in Time’s favor, the burly, white-haired general loses his case.

“One down, two to go,” Sharon’s lawyer, Milton Gould, said outside the courtroom. “Gen. Sharon and I are delighted.”

Time magazine Managing Editor Ray Cave criticized the partial verdict, saying jurors “completely misread” the disputed paragraph in finding it defamed the former Israeli defense minister.

The jurors sent a note with their verdict just before 11 a.m. to Judge Abraham D. Sofaer.

When Sofaer read the note to the hushed court, Sharon grinned and his wife, Lili, turned and beamed at reporters. Time attorney Thomas Barr, seated at the counsel table, slowly bowed his head.

The jurors found the Time paragraph defamatory because, they said, it implied that Sharon “consciously intended” Israel’s Lebanese Christian Falangist allies to slaughter Palestinian civilians in Beirut in 1983.

Time Makes Retraction Time was forced to concede to the jury last week that it made a mistake in reporting that a secret Israeli report was the basis for its allegations. The magazine published a partial retraction Monday.

The paragraph in Time’s Feb. 21, 1983, edition reported that on Sept. 15, 1982, Sharon “discussed” with Lebanon’s Falangist leaders “the need to take revenge for the assassination” of Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel, commander of the Falangist militia.

The next day, Sharon let Falangist militiamen into two Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut to root out terrorists. The Falangists slaughtered 700 Palestinians.

At the trial, Sharon contended the Time paragraph was a “blood libel” that falsely implies he condoned or encouraged the atrocity.

Time attorneys insisted that the “average reader” would not read that meaning into the paragraph.