Bat Yam Mayor Chases Iranian Diplomat Through Manhattan to Serve Missile Damage Lawsuit
Tzvika Brot pursued an Iranian representative in New York to deliver a 250 million shekel suit over the destruction caused to his city by Iranian missile strikes.
By Marina Weber ·
The mayor of the Israeli city of Bat Yam pursued an Iranian diplomat through the streets of Manhattan on Monday to personally serve him with a lawsuit seeking roughly 250 million shekels in damages caused by Iranian missile attacks, the Bat Yam municipality announced.
The effort, which city officials dubbed "operation open account," was two months in the planning and involved several people traveling to New York to locate an official Iranian representative who could be handed the legal documents.
"They sent us missiles, and we sent them a bill," Mayor Tzvika Brot told Walla.
Because Israelis are unable to enter the Iranian diplomatic compound, the team prepared identification sketches of senior Iranian representatives at the United Nations and selected a meeting point in advance, according to the municipality's statement, which stressed that the mission did not rely on a chance encounter.
Organizers said surveillance personnel spotted an Iranian representative leaving the compound and heading toward UN headquarters, then alerted Brot and his team to move in.
The diplomat reportedly ignored Brot and his associates and attempted to walk away, prompting the group to chase him through Manhattan until the mayor had finished reading the full contents of the lawsuit, a step the city said formally advances the legal proceedings.
The lawsuit against Iran was filed with the Jerusalem District Court last Sunday, one day before the operation in New York took place.
Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner framed the case as part of a broader campaign, saying in the statement: "The campaign against Iran does not end on the battlefield. It also extends to the courts, bank accounts, assets, and every financial resource of the Iranian regime. We will continue fighting on behalf of terror victims until we bring the ayatollahs' regime to its knees financially."
Nine residents were killed and 178 were wounded in Bat Yam during an Iranian missile barrage on central Israel in June 2025. Around 160 buildings were damaged, with 22 requiring immediate demolition, leaving thousands of residents homeless. Brot reportedly decided on that very night to demand that Iran pay for the destruction.
The municipality said Iran now has 60 days to respond to the suit, and that if no defense is submitted the city will be entitled to request a default judgment. Even if Bat Yam prevails, however, it remains unclear how the city could collect hundreds of millions of shekels in restitution from Iran, which is an enemy state of Israel.
