Court reinstates ban on Urich speaking with Netanyahu, working in his office

Judge rules that restrictions on PM’s aide regarding Qatar-ties case cannot continue, but those relating to separate leaked document case roiling PM’s office can

By Jeremy Sharon

You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

7 January 2026, 5:02 pm

Edit

Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Left: Jonatan Urich arrives for a court hearing in the so-called Qatargate investigation at the Central District Court in Lod, January 6, 2026. (Jonathan Shaul/Flash90); Right: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a 40-signatures debate in the plenum hall of the Knesset in Jerusalem, on January 5, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Lod-Central District Court reinstated restrictions on key Qatargate suspect Jonatan Urich on Wednesday, prohibiting him from speaking to anyone connected to the scandal — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and working in the Prime Minister’s Office, until a further decision on the matter is made.

The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court ruled Monday that it could not grant a police request to extend the restrictions in connection to the Qatargate case, since the police filed the request just two hours before the restrictions expired without the response of Urich’s lawyers, meaning the court could not properly review the request before the restrictions expired.

On Wednesday, the Central District Court upheld the lower court decision regarding the police request over the Qatargate case, but said that the restrictions on Urich can be extended for a separate leaked documents case, in which he is also a suspect — which the police requested on time.

Urich will therefore not be able to speak to Netanyahu — who is not a suspect — or anyone else connected to the case, nor go back to work at the Prime Minister’s Office as he had intended to, nor leave the country.

Netanyahu and Urich spoke by phone on Tuesday before a hearing on the extension of the restrictions, since they had expired at that point.

Urich, along with former Netanyahu spokesman Eli Feldstein and ex-campaign adviser Yisrael Einhorn, is accused 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 attack, despite the Gulf state’s strong ties to the terror group, and doing so while working in the PMO.

Urich is suspected of contact with a foreign agent, bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and money laundering.

The Qatargate affair is just one of the scandals roiling the PMO, alongside the leak of classified materials to the Bild newspaper in Germany in summer 2024 allegedly to influence Israeli public opinion about hostage negotiations with Hamas. That affair also involves Urich, Feldstein, and Einhorn.

Netanyahu has received wide backlash over his connection to the Qatar affair — though he denies any knowledge of the PR work by people under his charge. A recent poll found that half of Israelis, including 30 percent of those who voted for the governing coalition, believe working for Qatar while working in the PMO should be considered an act of treason.