Detention of key Qatargate suspects extended till Friday, as judge criticizes media leaks
Three journalists summoned for open questioning, prompting AG and state attorney to defend practice due to nature of case; second businessman questioned over affair
The Rishon Lezion Magistrates Court on Thursday extended the detention of the two key suspects in the Qatargate affair for another day to enable investigators to continue their probes.
Police agreed to the short extension after Judge Menachem Mizrahi expressed skepticism regarding the necessity of holding the two for a further seven days, and criticized leaks of investigation details to the media.
The two chief suspects, Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, have worked as media advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and are suspected of multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corruption charges involving lobbyists and businessmen.
They are accused of taking money to spread pro-Qatari messaging to reporters while in the prime minister’s employ.
In further developments, three Israeli journalists on Thursday gave open testimony to the police as persons with knowledge of the affair, after being summoned by investigators.
Criticism and concerns raised over the questioning of journalists and the effects on freedom of the press prompted the attorney general and the state attorney to issue a statement justifying members of the media being questioned, citing the nature of the case.
So far, only one journalist, Jerusalem Post Editor in Chief Zvika Klein, has been questioned under caution, due to his suspected involvement in the alleged offenses. Klein has denied any involvement in the affair, and on Thursday was reportedly released from house arrest without any further restrictions imposed on him.
During a joint interrogation session conducted by police, Feldstein accused Urich of lying to cops about payments made to Feldstein. The two have given contradictory versions of events that they had told the investigators under separate questioning. According to Kan, Urich broke down in tears at one point.
In addition, Hebrew media reported that an Israeli businessman was questioned under caution on Wednesday over his connections to the affair. He is the second businessman questioned in the scandal, after Israeli businessman Gil Birger gave testimony for his role in it.
The Qatargate affair centers around close aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who are suspected of having worked for a lobbying firm contracted by Doha to improve Qatar’s image in Israel — particularly its role as mediator in the hostage release negotiations with Hamas — by pushing pro-Qatar messaging to journalists. They are also suspected of advancing a negative narrative about Egypt’s role in the negotiations as another way of improving Qatar’s standing.
According to the suspicions, Urich and Feldstein carried out the work for The Third Circle, a lobbying firm owned by lobbyist Jay Footlik, at the same time as they were working as media aides to Netanyahu.
At times, they are alleged to have passed pro-Qatari messages to reporters in the name of “senior political officials,” a code often used by the prime minister’s advisers for Netanyahu himself when they do not want a comment directly attributed to him.
Feldstein was apparently paid by Birger, who has acknowledged transferring money to him on behalf of Footlik for tax reasons.
Leaky investigations
In the court’s decision on Thursday to extend Urich and Feldstein’s detention, Judge Mizrahi was critical of ongoing leaks from the investigations.
“Unfortunately, the issue of leaks from the investigation is very damaging, and complicates it, and nothing has been done about this matter,” Mizrahi said.
Urich’s attorney, Amit Hadad, pointed out that police had initially requested an additional seven days of detention for the two suspects due to concerns about obstruction of the investigation if they were released. He said this concern was “ironic” given the numerous leaks of investigation details to the media.
The judge also pointed out to police that he had yet to be presented with a document detailing police’s suspicions that the suspects had harmed national security. The investigators said they were working on putting such a document together.
Mizrahi rejected the request for seven more days of detention, saying many of the police’s requested investigative actions were “irrelevant.” The police representatives ultimately agreed to a 24-hour extension. Police did not, however, commit to agreeing to the release of Urich and Feldstein on Friday, and could request a further extension, depending on developments in the investigation and the needs of investigators.
One of the possible crimes the two suspects could be charged with is contact with a foreign agent, a criminal violation that entails ties to an individual working for a foreign government who is trying to collect classified information or harm state security.
Proving this charge is likely to be more difficult than other possible criminal violations, such as fraud, breach of trust and other financial crimes the two men are suspected of.
Contradictions, tears
During the court hearing, a police investigator confirmed that Urich and Feldstein’s versions of events “totally contradicted” each other, indicating that at least one of the suspects appeared to have lied under questioning.
Because of their contradictory testimonies, the police interrogated them together on Wednesday in order to try and understand who was telling the truth. According to a report by the Kan public broadcaster, Urich and Feldstein got into a heated argument during the joint interrogation, with Urich bursting into tears at one point after Feldstein accused him of lying to the police.
Feldstein’s outburst was reportedly prompted by Urich telling police he was not involved in any payments that were allegedly transferred to Feldstein by Qatar-based US lobbyist Footlik via Israeli businessman Birger, in exchange for putting a positive spin on Doha’s role in Israel-Hamas negotiations.
The report said that Feldstein also accused Urich of making him the fall guy in a separate case, in which Feldstein is suspected of leaking stolen classified information to the foreign press.
Urich’s attorney Hadad castigated the investigator for not allowing Urich and Feldstein to speak to their attorneys before the joint interrogation. The police representative insisted that the suspects’ consultation with attorneys before their original questioning should have sufficed for the joint questioning as well.
The police investigator confirmed during the hearing that cops intend to have Footlik give testimony, and that police also wish to get testimony from Yisrael Einhorn, a former aide to Netanyahu and Likud campaign manager who appears to have some involvement in the scandal.
Einhorn is currently residing in Serbia, and law enforcement officials are working on ways to have him testify.
Journalists questioned
Over the course of Thursday, Israeli journalists Nir Dvori (Channel 12), Suleiman Maswadeh (Kan) and Shirit Avitan Cohen (Israel Hayom) gave open testimony in the ongoing probe. Their testimony likely relates to messages they were sent by Urich or Feldstein regarding hostage negotiations and the role of Qatar and Egypt in those talks.
On Thursday morning, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara together with State Attorney Amit Aisman said in a statement that Klein of The Jerusalem Post was questioned under caution as a suspect, due to comments he made in open testimony which, they said, ostensibly linked him to the effort to improve Qatar’s image in return for payment.
They said that Klein was originally summoned to give open testimony and not as a suspect, but that when questioned, “a significant suspicion formed that the journalist was, along with the prime minister’s aides, a part of the mechanism of receiving benefits from Qatar in exchange for advancing Qatar’s interests.”
Police investigators then switched the open testimony to questioning under caution as a result.
Baharav-Miara and Aisman insisted that they were committed to freedom of the press and that it was still their policy to avoid seeking testimony from journalists as much as possible, but asserted that getting to the bottom of the Qatargate affair necessitated taking such action, because of the very nature of the case and the interactions of Netanyahu’s aides with reporters.
A statement sent to journalists in the name of “associates of Klein” insisted that The Jerusalem Post editor “never received any benefit or anything else from Qatar or any of its representatives.”
The statement said that a visit Klein made to Qatar in 2024 was done “solely in the context of his journalistic work.”
“His associates emphasize that, contrary to what is implied in the Attorney General’s statement, he was never part of any ‘mechanism,’” the statement added, while alleging that his phone was taken by investigators without a warrant.
Klein’s “associates” pointed out that he had been released from house arrest without any restrictive conditions and that “it remains unclear what he is suspected of — or whether he is even formally considered a suspect.”
Later on Thursday, Energy Minister Eli Cohen confirmed a report that Footlik had at one point approached him to ask that he promote a Qatari proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas. According to the i24 News report, Footlik’s efforts were stopped in their tracks after Cohen discovered his ties to Qatar.
Cohen confirmed in response to the report that he was introduced to Footlik several months ago by Ariel Shapir, an employee of Perception Media, a PR firm owned by Urich and Einhorn, but that he refused to meet with the lobbyist after discovering his connection to Qatar.
The Times of Israel Community.