Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will testify for the first time on Tuesday in his corruption trial that began four years ago, in a hearing that was supposed to take place in November 2023 but was postponed several times under the pretext of the war in Gaza.
Netanyahu will take the stand on Tuesday in a fortified underground courtroom in Tel Aviv, facing the threat of an attack taking advantage of the court date, as the internal intelligence service (Shin Bet) warned the Israeli Court Administration.
The meeting was to be held in Jerusalem, but the body recommended that it be moved to the court on Weizmann Street in Tel Aviv due to the lack of a suitable bomb shelter in the holy city.
The prime minister will face three charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust for allegedly receiving gifts in exchange for favours and for applying pressure to achieve a positive image of his administration in the media.
From the beginning, the president denied the facts and received the support of his followers, who claim thatIt is an operation of the “judicial left” to remove him from power by legal means after failing to do so at the polls, while another sector demands his resignation and even accuses him of extending the ongoing conflicts to stay in office and out of jail.
Four years of delays
The trial began in 2020 and brought more than 300 people to the stand, with Netanyahu's testimony being postponed until November of last year, when the Hamas attacks on October 7 and the war in Gaza that followed led to a two-month "judicial pause" and then a series of appeals by his defense to postpone it on several occasions until tomorrow.
In 2022, the trial played little role in the electoral campaign that culminated in the November 1 elections, in which the Likud politician returned to power with the most right-wing executive in the country's history.
Netanyahu's legal team has argued throughout the year that the trial could put his life at risk and that the management of the war and the efforts to recover the 96 hostages still in Gaza made it impossible for him to prepare for his intervention.
In July, his defense requested that the hearing be postponed to March 2025, but the court rejected this and set the date for December 2, which it later agreed to postpone by just eight days.
And just this week, following the fall of the Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad at the hands of Islamist insurgents, Most government ministers have supported two letters asking Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to delay the trial and criticising the decision to require Netanyahu to testify three times a week.
The trial is expected to drag on for several years and is unlikely to be completed before 2028-2029, including possible appeals.
If convicted and sentenced to a final judgment, Netanyahu would have to resign, but he could remain in power while the trial is ongoing, as Israeli law requires a minister to resign if indicted, but does not apply to the head of government.
More scandals surrounding Netanyahu
The prime minister will be impeached at a time when the investigations into his cabinet, which he describes as a "coup", are increasingly occupying space in the Israeli public debate.
One of the most dangerous controversies for Netanyahu at the moment is the so-called 'BibiLeaks' case, in which a spokesman for the politician and a reservist non-commissioned officer are accused of conspiring to leak a classified document to the foreign press, with the aim of influencing public opinion against a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
Following the scandal, members of Netanyahu's Likud party have pushed through parliament a controversial bill that would allow members of the military and intelligence services to leak classified documents to the prime minister or the defense minister without authorization.
The law passed its first vote (of three) on December 4.
Beyond the BibiLeaks, Netanyahu's chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, has been accused of blackmailing a military officer in the prime minister's office with a compromising video in order to alter the minutes of meetings in the moments before the Hamas attacks on October 7, as well as calls held on the morning of the attack, according to Israeli media.
Agencies contributed to this Aurora article.
I am not pro-Bibi, although I recognize that there is no one else who has the necessary talent to govern, neither the useless conspirators of the opposition, nor the useless extremists who are part of the government.
Even so, I hope it becomes obvious that it was all a manipulation, falling into absolute lies, just to carry out a coup against a democratically elected candidate, by people with very questionable democratic qualities.