Judge bars Netanyahu aide Urich from PM’s office until March over Qatargate, Bild suspicions

The Lod District Court ruled Sunday that restrictions barring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s adviser Jonatan Urich from the Prime Minister’s Office will remain in place until at least the beginning of March.

It was the latest in a series of decisions by the higher court overturning Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court decisions regarding restrictive conditions for suspects in two cases roiling the PMO.

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, breach of trust, and money laundering, in what has become known as the Qatargate affair.

In addition, he is a suspect in the leak of classified materials to the Bild newspaper in Germany in the summer of 2024, allegedly to sway Israeli public opinion against a hostage deal with Hamas. That affair also involves Feldstein and Einhorn.

Judge Jacob Spasser wrote that there is a “reasonable suspicion” that Urich transferred classified information, which should have been kept secret to preserve state security, and on some occasions “did so intentionally to harm state security.”

“The apparent scene of the alleged offense is the respondent’s previous place of employment,” wrote Spasser, referring to the PMO. “I do not see at this stage the possibility of returning the respondent to the scene of the crime, the unique sensitivity of which requires no explanation, and there is no choice but to remove him from the Prime Minister’s Office.”

The judge, who noted that Urich denies any wrongdoing, also rejected arguments that “there are no claims” that he tried to obstruct the investigation into the matter, pointing out that Urich got a new phone the day after Feldstein, who had been indicted over the Bild case, was arrested, but had not provided a “satisfactory explanation” for doing so.

The harm to Urich’s right to freedom of employment in barring him from the PMO is outweighed by the possibility that he might again leak classified documents and obstruct the investigations, Spasser ruled.

He therefore barred Urich from the PMO for 60 days, although that period was applied retroactively to begin on January 4 and will therefore expire on March 4, unless police request an extension.

He is also banned from contacting anyone connected to the investigation; from leaving the country; and from working for the Perception communications company, whose owner, Einhorn, is also a suspect in the Bild and Qatargate affairs.

Police had filed an appeal earlier this month, when the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s court rejected a police request to extend the restrictions on Urich.

At the time, the court had based its decision, in part, on doubting Feldstein’s testimony to police, which implicates Urich in the Bild affair.

Spasser, however, rejected that position, saying it was too early to assess the reliability of Feldstein’s testimony, it being a matter for clarification during hearings.

Regarding Urich’s own investigation by police, Spasser assessed that it “does not appear to indicate the behavior of an interrogee who is confident in the reliability of his account.”

The judge highlighted Urich’s “avoiding providing answers and clarifications to questions addressed to him,” his claim that the investigation is political, and the new telephone he obtained.

It was the second time that the Lod court had overruled the lower court on Urich’s access to the PMO. Earlier this month, the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court had also rejected a police request to extend the restrictions on Urich, and the higher court then reinstated them.

Similarly, last week, the district court upheld a police request to bar Tzachi Braverman, Netanyahu’s chief of staff, from the PMO, due to an ongoing police investigation into Braverman on suspicion of obstruction of justice relating to the Bild case. The magistrate’s court had also rejected that police request.

Braverman was detained and questioned after Feldstein claimed in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster that Braverman told him he could quash the Bild probe.

Netanyahu, who has not been named as a suspect in either case, 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.

Separately on Sunday, the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court issued a ruling calling on journalist Omri Assenheim to turn over all raw footage of the interview he conducted with Feldstein that aired on Kan last month.

The court gave Assenheim until Tuesday to hand over the materials to the police. Judge Menachem Mizrahi said in the decision that Feldstein’s testimony to police does not match everything he said in the interview, and he dismissed Assenheim’s arguments that such an order harms the free press.

Assenheim is expected to appeal the ruling.