Court declines to extend key restrictive conditions on Netanyahu’s chief of staff

The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court on Sunday refused to extend some key restrictive release conditions on Tzachi Braverman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, ruling that his position made it necessary for him to be able to work during the ongoing war with Iran.

Judge Menahem Mizrahi denied the police request to maintain a travel ban that has been imposed on Braverman, and denied the request to extend the ban on his being in contact with Netanyahu.

Mizrahi noted that, due to the war with Iran, it will be difficult for Braverman to take up his post as the new Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, but said that the judicial order banning him from leaving the country is nevertheless annulled.

If Braverman leaves the country, he will be required to return should the police request that he do so.

The judge did, however, prohibit Braverman from speaking with the prime minister about the investigation into the suspicions that Braverman interfered with an ongoing investigation. Mizrahi also extended a ban on Braverman contacting other suspects in the case until March 10.

The ruling will go into effect on Tuesday to allow the police the opportunity to appeal to the district court.

Mizrahi has ruled several times over the past months to lift the restrictions on Braverman, but each time, the higher Lod-Central District Court has moved to overturn his rulings and reimpose the restrictions.

Last month, Judge Michael Karshen of the Lod District Court said the suspicions against Braverman had “substantially strengthened,” and sharply criticized Mizrahi, saying his ruling the prior week against extending the restrictions was flawed.

“There is no foundation to the rationale of the lower court that the reasonable suspicion against the respondent [Braverman] has weakened. The opposite is true,” concluded Karshen.

District court judges have criticized Mizrahi on numerous occasions for his decisions and handling of the Bild and Qarargate cases, which he has presided over.

Braverman is being investigated on suspicion of interfering with an investigation and other crimes, in connection with allegations that he told Eli Feldstein, a spokesperson for Netanyahu, that he could quash a military investigation into Feldstein over the leak of a classified document to the German newspaper Bild.

He allegedly set up a nighttime meeting in the underground parking lot of the IDF’s Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv with Feldstein in October 2024. During the meeting, Feldstein alleges that Braverman told him he was aware of what should have been a secret IDF investigation into Feldstein’s leak of classified intelligence, which Braverman said he could stop.

The probe stems from the broader investigation into the Bild leaked documents affair, in which Feldstein and a reservist NCO who leaked the material to him have already been indicted, and in which two other senior aides to Netanyahu, Jonatan Urich and Israel Einhorn, are key suspects.

The documents purported to show that the Hamas leadership was not interested in a ceasefire and hostage release deal, and were leaked as part of an effort to buttress Netanyahu’s claim that it was not he who was holding up such an agreement.

Feldstein, Urich, and Einhorn are all also implicated in the Qatargate investigation, in which they are suspected of taking money to spearhead a public relations campaign to cast Qatar in a positive light for over a year after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, despite the Gulf state’s strong ties to the terror group, and while Feldstein and Urich were working as aides to Netanyahu.