Coalition MKs, ministers line up at court to back Netanyahu as trial testimony kicks off
Politicians backing PM rail at legal system for hauling him into dock amid security situation; demonstrators for and against Netanyahu gather outside courthouse
A cohort of ministers and lawmakers backing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu descended on the Tel Aviv District Court Tuesday as the premier was set to begin giving testimony in his corruption trial, as some demonstrators also gathered outside.
Supporters poured scorn on the court system for demanding that Netanyahu show up for his scheduled testimony when the country remains embroiled in war on multiple fronts, and days after an Islamist-led coup ousted the regime in neighboring Syria.
They called to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and for the government to revive its stalled plans for a wide-reaching overhaul of the judiciary.
Transportation Minister Miri Regev, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir were at the court to receive Netanyahu, as were Equality Minister May Golan and Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman.
Knesset Speaker and Likud MK Amir Ohana was also in attendance, as were coalition chairman Ofir Katz and Likud MKs Avichay Boaron, Osnat Mark, Tali Gotliv and Nissim Vaturi. Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech also showed up.
Small dueling groups of protesters rallied on either side of the entrance to the courthouse, with some 100 participants in each. Police separated Netanyahu’s supporters and detractors, who largely drowned each other out in a din of competing chants.
Coalition lawmakers and ministers shook hands and took selfies with the premier’s loyalists at the rally.
Some relatives of hostages held in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing war there also gathered in front of the courthouse. Maayan Sherman, mother of slain captive soldier Ron Sherman, held up a picture of her son, on which she wrote: “Kidnapped because of Netanyahu. Murdered by Netanyahu.”
Across the street, mounted police officers stood at the ready in case chaos broke out between the two camps.
Netanyahu arrived at the packed courtroom ahead of his testimony, appearing at ease and shaking hands with members of his Likud party and other supporters.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Ben Gvir declared that he was there to support the prime minister, who he claimed was suffering a “campaign of persecution.”
Asserting that the charges against Netanyahu were fabricated, Ben Gvir said it was not enough merely to speak out, and called on his fellow ministers to raise a proposal to fire the attorney general at the next cabinet meeting.
“I say something very simple: It is clear to everyone that she is fabricating cases,” he said. “I have been demanding her dismissal for over a year… it is time to bring this to a government decision!”
The charges against Netanyahu were not submitted by Baharav-Miara but by her predecessor, Avichai Mandelblit. But the current attorney general has long drawn the ire of coalition members for opposing various policies of the hard-right government as legally problematic.
Environment Minister Silman told Kan news that Netanyahu’s trial shows that the government’s stalled judicial overhaul must go ahead.
“We don’t have the privilege to continue in silence. We can’t allow the justice system to take control of the government and act against democracy. We have no choice but to return to the judicial reform and sort out that entity.”
She also called for the removal of Baharav-Miara.
The judicial overhaul, which opponents have warned would erode Israel’s democracy, sparked long months of mass anti-government protests in 2023 until it was eventually put on hold. Some government lawmakers have recently called to restart the process.
Regev, questioning why the testimony session had not been postponed despite momentous regional developments, argued that the court had decided “to humiliate Netanyahu, the State of Israel and harm the security of the country.”
Minister Golan told Kan that requiring Netanyahu to testify was an unprecedented “disgrace, an embarrassment” (Netanyahu is not required to testify, but given that he chose to do so, has been required to do so now, based on a schedule drawn up months ago).
In recent months, Netanyahu’s lawyers and his supporters repeatedly sought to delay the testimony but failed. His testimony will be an effort to refute the charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust leveled at him in three cases. Netanyahu denies wrongdoing, and says he is the victim of a witch-hunt and an attempted political coup by law enforcement agencies.
Karhi, the communications minister, predicted the case against the prime minister would collapse like a “house of cards.”
“Prime Minister Netanyahu is coming to the hearing today not as a defendant, but as an accuser,” he asserted, echoing Netanyahu’s remarks the night before, when during a televised press briefing he castigated the legal system over the investigations that led to the charges.
“The decision to force the prime minister of Israel to testify no less than three days a week in the midst of a war is unbearable,” Karhi said.
Likud backbencher Amit Halevi asserted the prosecution of Netanyahu is “not a trial, it is a hate crime.”
The case, he offered, was motivated by the kind of “hatred that drives jihad; a holy war against Netanyahu, the values and the public he represents.”
“Don’t be impressed by the morning headlines in the newspapers. Even dead fish would be ashamed if they were wrapped in them,” he quipped.
Ahead of Netanyahu’s testimony, long-time ally Justice Minister Yariv Levin released a statement describing the ongoing legal proceedings against the premier as an “injustice.”
“Along with many, many citizens of Israel, I seek to strengthen you, Mr. Prime Minister. I know that today, too, you will stand tall and present the simple truth as it is,” Levin stated.
Culture Minister Miki Zohar called the decision not to reschedule Netanyahu’s testimony “an absurd and illogical decision by any standard.”
It is the first time an Israeli prime minister takes the stand as a criminal defendant, an embarrassing milestone for a leader who has cultivated an image as a sophisticated and respected statesman.
The hearings are taking place in an underground hall in the Tel Aviv District Court for security reasons, since the Jerusalem District Court lacks adequate security arrangements.
Netanyahu’s defense attorneys were to question the prime minister first, during which time he will be able to expound at length in defense of his actions, in a process that will likely last two to three days of testimony. The majority of the prime minister’s time on the witness stand will then be taken up by the cross-examination by the prosecution.
Once the prosecution completes its cross-examination, Netanyahu’s defense attorneys will be able to call him back to the witness stand if they feel that he needs to clarify anything in his testimony.
