corruption trial

Israeli lawmakers accuse Netanyahu of trading Gaza war for end to his corruption trial

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv, on April 21, 2025. [Moti KIMCHI / POOL / AFP / Getty Images]

Members of Israel’s Knesset (parliament) have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of using the ongoing Gaza war to secure an end to his corruption trial, Anadolu reports.

“(Netanyahu) is conditioning the future of Israel and our children on his trial,” Knesset member for the Democrats Party, Naama Lazimi, said in statements cited by The Times of Israel news outlet on Sunday.

She said that the Israeli premier showed that he is unfit for the office by “trading his indictment in exchange for a political settlement and an end to the war.”

US President Donald Trump called again on Saturday for Netanyahu’s corruption trial to be cancelled.

Highlighting the billions of dollars the US spends annually to support Israel, Trump declared, “We are not going to stand for this,” and urged authorities to “Let Bibi go.”

“Those behind President Trump’s tweet are Netanyahu and his corrupt gang,” Democrats lawmaker Gilad Kariv said.

He denounced the Israeli premier and his circle’s “willingness to play with the national security of the State of Israel and the issue of the hostages in order to save Netanyahu from conviction in court.”

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas has repeatedly said that it is ready to release all Israeli captives in Gaza in exchange for an end to the ongoing war, Israeli withdrawal from the enclave, and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

However, Netanyahu has rejected these terms, and continued his genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, where more than 56,400 people have been killed since October 2023.

READ: Trump urges Israel to cancel Netanyahu’s trial or grant a pardon

Corruption trial

Yesh Atid Knesset member Karine Elharrar warned that Netanyahu was “acting against the Israeli public interest” by linking his legal fate with hostage negotiations and regional normalization agreements.

She also accused Trump of effectively “conditioning US aid on the prime minister’s trial.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid urged the US president “not to interfere in a legal process in an independent country.”

He also suggested that Trump’s interference might be a form of “compensation” to Netanyahu for political concessions in Gaza.

Religious Zionism lawmaker Simcha Rothman, chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, called Trump’s call to end Netanyahu’s trial “inappropriate even if he is correct.”

Netanyahu faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust that could lead to imprisonment if proven.

In January, Netanyahu began interrogation sessions related to Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, which he denies. The attorney general filed an indictment related to these cases at the end of November 2019.

Case 1000 involves Netanyahu and his family receiving expensive gifts from wealthy businessmen in exchange for favors.

Case 2000 concerns alleged negotiations with Arnon Mozes, the publisher of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, to gain positive media coverage.

Case 4000, considered the most serious, involves providing facilitation to Shaul Elovitch, the former owner of the news site Walla and a telecommunications company Bezeq, in return for favorable media coverage.

Netanyahu, whose trial began on May 24, 2020, is the first sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant in the country’s history.

He also faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, with the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for him and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024 over atrocities in Gaza.

READ: Israel’s attorney general rejects Netanyahu’s request to delay corruption trial

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Israel’s attorney general rejects Netanyahu’s request to delay corruption trial

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An exterior view of the District Court in east Jerusalem, on November 22, 2021. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]

Israel’s attorney general on Friday rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to postpone his corruption trial for two weeks, local media said, Anadolu reports.

Netanyahu had asked the Jerusalem District Court to delay his trial, claiming that he needed to focus on other matters following Israeli attacks on Iran, including the issue of returning Israeli captives from Gaza.

According to Israel’s Channel 12, the court also rejected Netanyahu’s request and decided to keep the scheduled hearing set for next Monday.

The court judges determined that “the schedule presented by Netanyahu to try to delay his trial sessions does not justify canceling the hearings,” it said.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara earlier said that the reasons detailed by Netanyahu in his request “cannot justify canceling two weeks of hearings.”

As a result, Netanyahu is expected to appear before the court on Monday as planned.

READ: Trump urges Israel to cancel Netanyahu’s trial or grant a pardon

Corruption charges

Reacting to the decision, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticized both the attorney general and the judges.

“The Attorney General’s Office and the judges of Netanyahu’s government insist on being small dwarfs, lacking any strategic vision or understanding of reality,” he wrote on X.

“They seem determined to help us highlight for the public the destructive and dangerous corruption that has taken hold of the judicial system, and the urgent need to reform it,” he added.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also criticized the court’s decision, calling it a “detached and miserable decision.”

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi echoed the criticism, saying: “They live in their own world, isolated… Shame on them!”

Likud lawmaker Avichai Buaron said Netanyahu should simply notify the court and the attorney general that “his duty to the state and the national interest outweigh the need for four more evidentiary hearings, and that he won’t attend in the next two weeks.”

For several months, Netanyahu has appeared before the court to respond to the charges against him but the sessions were halted during the recent Israel-Iran war that began on June 13 and lasted for 12 days.

On Thursday, Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump for calling to cancel his corruption trial, a move that sparked wide controversy and division in Israel.

Supporters of Netanyahu welcomed it, while the opposition urged Trump not to interfere in Israel’s judicial process.

Netanyahu faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust that could lead to imprisonment if proven.

In January, Netanyahu began interrogation sessions related to Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, which he denies. The attorney general filed an indictment related to these cases at the end of November 2019.

Case 1000 involves Netanyahu and his family receiving expensive gifts from wealthy businessmen in exchange for favors.

Case 2000 concerns alleged negotiations with Arnon Mozes, the publisher of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, to gain positive media coverage.

Case 4000, considered the most serious, involves providing facilitation to Shaul Elovitch, the former owner of the news site Walla and a telecommunications company Bezeq, in return for favorable media coverage.

Netanyahu, whose trial began on May 24, 2020, is the first sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant in the country’s history.

He also faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, with the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for him and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024 over atrocities in Gaza, where over 56,300 people, mostly women and children, have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023.

READ: Israel’s Netanyahu requests two-week break from corruption trial citing “regional developments”

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Israeli spy chief accuses Netanyahu of making improper demands

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israeli-spy-chief-accuses-netanyahu-making-improper-demands

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv, Israel, April 21, 2025

THE head of Israel’s internal security service has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to exploit the agency for political and personal gain by making numerous improper demands.

In a submission to the Supreme Court om Monday, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar wrote that he had refused a request from Mr Netanyahu to identify anti-government protesters and put their financial backers under surveillance.

Mr Bar added he had been told to obey Mr Netanyahu, not the courts, in the event of a constitutional crisis. He also said there had been unsuccessful attempts to force him to sign a document making it nearly impossible for the prime minister to testify in his corruption trial due to security concerns. Mr Netanyahu’s office dismissed Mr Bar’s affidavit as “full of lies.”

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israeli-spy-chief-accuses-netanyahu-making-improper-demands

Continue ReadingIsraeli spy chief accuses Netanyahu of making improper demands

Netanyahu corruption trial to resume in Tel Aviv next week

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) speaks with Government Secretary Tzachi Braverman during the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem on July 23, 2017. [ABIR SULTAN / POOL / AFP/ Getty Images]

Judges in Israel have agreed unanimously to resume the trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges in Tel Aviv on 10 December, local media have reported.

Netanyahu had asked for his appearance before the Israeli court to be postponed for two weeks, claiming that he was busy with the International Criminal Court’s warrant for his arrest on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. He will appear before the court next week, as it considers the charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, which were first brought against him in January 2020. His trial began in May 2020.

In a related context, Israeli media also reported that the Israeli court decided to release Netanyahu’s advisor who was accused of leaking security documents and to put him under house arrest.

The allegation that the advisor stole secret documents from the Israeli army, transferred them to Netanyahu’s office, and then leaked them to foreign media outlets has sparked widespread controversy in Israel. The apparent intention in stealing the documents, manipulating their content and leaking them was to influence Israeli public opinion to reject any prisoner exchange deal, and to create an atmosphere hostile to the protest movement against Netanyahu’s government by claiming that such protests strengthen the power and position of Hamas.

READ: Palestinians in Hebron suffer ‘routine’ physical, sexual violence at hands of Israeli soldiers, B’Tselem finds

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Continue ReadingNetanyahu corruption trial to resume in Tel Aviv next week