Court nixes hearing after PM cites ongoing discussions of ‘foundation of our existence’
After describing ‘historic turning point,’ Netanyahu to meet ministers Tuesday morning instead; judges agree to discuss reducing premier’s testimony from 3 hearings per week to 2
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The Jerusalem District Court decided Monday to cancel Tuesday’s scheduled hearing in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been set to continue testifying in his criminal trial, after a closed-door hearing in which the military’s intelligence chief briefed the judges on sensitive security matters.
Instead of the hearing, Netanyahu will hold a confidential meeting with top ministers on Tuesday morning.
Earlier, while explaining his request to hold the closed-door meeting, Netanyahu said Israel was in the midst of a “historic turning point” and that changing security circumstances were having implications for the country’s very future, also arguing that the court should therefore reduce the number of hearings in his trial from three per week to two.
Addressing the judges during a hearing in the corruption trial against him, Netanyahu insisted that matters he is currently dealing with are critical to Israel’s continued existence, as part of an elaboration on a written request his defense team filed in the morning. That motion asked for a closed-door court hearing to be held in which Defense Minister Israel Katz would detail new security circumstances that necessitate Netanyahu’s increased availability.
The judges ultimately agreed to the request to hold such a session, but objected to Katz giving the briefing since he is a political rather than professional official.
Netanyahu’s military secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman briefed the court on the situation instead, while head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder also addressed the judges.
Following the hearing, the court issued a decision canceling Tuesday’s scheduled hearing due to the information relayed to the judges by the military officials. The next hearing was thus scheduled for Wednesday.
After the cancelation of the hearing, members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s intelligence subcommittee were summoned to a confidential meeting with the prime minister on Tuesday at 11 a.m. — a time during which Netanyahu would otherwise have been in court.
The Kan public broadcaster reported that both the closed-door court hearing and Tuesday’s meeting discussed or were set to discuss developments in various war fronts, including the Iranian front.
Netanyahu has been giving testimony in his trial since December 10, but has only testified on 12 occasions since that date, including Monday’s hearing.
Hearings have been repeatedly canceled at Netanyahu’s request due to pressing concerns the prime minister has had to deal with, including matters related to the wars with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon; the current ceasefires on both of these fronts; additional negotiations on extending the Gaza truce to free more hostages; his visit to Washington, DC, to meet US President Donald Trump; and his recent surgery to remove his prostate.
Last week, the prime minister requested that the hearings be reduced to two per week due to the ongoing security tensions and complex diplomatic situation, and on Monday he requested the closed-door hearing with heightened security protocols to explain to the judges the reason for his request.
“We are amid a historical turning point. We are discussing issues that are the very foundation of our existence,” Netanyahu told the judges. “There is a change in circumstances that has implications for our existence, for the future of the country.”
The closed-door session requested by Netanyahu to elaborate on this situation also required the presence of the Director of Security of the Defense Establishment, an official responsible for security in the Defense Ministry and for protecting state secrets, to be present in the hearing, Netanyahu’s lawyers explained, in order to ensure that classified information is sufficiently protected.
“This is a sensitive security matter, exposure to which requires meeting the terms of the security authorities, including for the site where the classified hearing will take place,” the director of the agency was quoted as saying by Netanyahu’s lawyer in the court filing.
“We are in a situation where we are trying to balance two needs — to hold the trial and to take care of national security,” said Netanyahu.
He said his lawyers were unable to detail “even a few of the considerations” for why he needed to spend less time in court every week, and that in order to demonstrate the pressing need to reduce the number of hearings, “we need to reveal to you the iceberg that is in front of us, most of which is underwater.”
Court tells defense to speed up its questioning of Netanyahu
Earlier on Monday, the court issued a ruling that Netanyahu’s primary questioning by his defense attorney be limited to 14 more sessions — including Monday — for all the charges against him.
The court said it had made the decision “in light of the amount of time the [prime minister’s] testimony has taken until now,” with the testimony going at a slow pace to answer in detail each of the more than 300 pieces of evidence cited by prosecutors in the most serious of the three cases against Netanyahu, known as Case 4000.
The judges have tried repeatedly to get Netanyahu’s defense attorney Amit Hadad to speed up his questioning, reduce repetitious questioning, and reduce the amount of time he dwells on certain specifics of the cases, but both Hadad and Netanyahu have refused.
Hadad said last week that he would need between 12 to 14 more hearings to cover Case 4000, which relates to the allegations of an illegal relationship between Netanyahu and Walla owner Shaul Elovitch, including a bribery charge, and a further 10 hearings for cases 1000 and 2000, in which Netanyahu is charged with fraud and breach of trust. Netanyahu denies wrongdoing and says the charges were fabricated in a political coup led by the police and state prosecution.
The prosecution said it would need three times more hearings for cross-examination than the total number of defense hearings, a situation that would have meant more than 120 further hearings just for Netanyahu’s testimony.
The trial began in May 2020 and at the current pace is seen as unlikely to end before 2028 or 2029, including potential appeals.
The court ordered Netanyahu’s defense team on Monday to provide it by February 26 with a list of other defense witnesses who could testify once a week, if the court were to agree to Netanyahu’s request to testify just twice a week. This indicated that if the judges agree to the request, they will want the canceled hearings replaced with other witnesses to speed up the process.
After the defense presents its proposal on the matter, the State Attorney’s Office, which is strongly opposed to reducing the number of hearings for Netanyahu, is set to respond and the court will then make a decision.
Netanyahu will need to testify three times a week until that decision is made, the court stated.
The Times of Israel Community.