sued for libel by Neve Gordon, a faculty member at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Department of Politics and Government, claiming that Plaut slandered him in certain articles and alleged e-mails. In May 2006, the Nazareth Magistrate's Court ruled in favor of Gordon, and ordered Plaut to pay Gordon 80,000 shekels in compensation plus 15,000 shekels in legal fees. Both sides appealed to the Nazareth District Court, and in February 2008, the court reversed three out of four of the libel claims but upheld a libel judgment relating to the fourth, a publication in which Plaut called Gordon a "Judenrat Wannabe". It reduced the damages to 10,000 shekels (about $2,700) on the basis that, in the court's view, Plaut was entitled to criticize Gordon. Letter to Turkish Prime Minister In March 2013, a letter from Plaut was received by the office of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister of Turkey. The letter condemned as illegal Turkey's occupation of Northern Cyprus and attacked the Turkish Prime Minister, accusing him of being behind the Gaza Flotilla "terrorist attack" on Israeli soldiers. Plaut apologized for Israel not killing a larger number of "terrorists" on the flotilla ship. He claimed it was time to give back "occupied Constantinople" to its "true owner", namely, Greece. See also Neo-Zionism References External links OpinioNet columns Older collection of articles 1951 births 2017 deaths Academic staff of Central European University Israeli economists Middle East Forum Princeton University alumni Temple University alumni Academic staff of the University of Haifa People from Philadelphia American emigrants to Israel Deaths from cancer in Israel