Netanyahu retweets statement urging jailing of journalist for reporting on him

Premier’s coalition partner Gantz pushes back on statement that ‘in a proper world Raviv Drucker would go to jail,’ says role of a free press is to scrutinize those in power

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, speaks with Defense Minister Benny Gantz during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, June 7, 2020. (Menahem Kahana/Pool via AP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, speaks with Defense Minister Benny Gantz during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, June 7, 2020. (Menahem Kahana/Pool via AP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party said a journalist should be jailed for an investigative report on a bribery case the premier is facing criminal charges in, prompting pushback Thursday from Defense Minister Benny Gantz and other members of the government.

After Wednesday’s broadcast of Channel 13’s investigate news program “HaMakor,” Likud issued a tweet — which was retweeted by Netanyahu — accusing the network of failing to ask the party for comment or air its response to a report by journalist Ravid Drucker.

The tweet, which Likud said was its response to the report, included a video statement railing against Channel 13 and Drucker, accusing “fake 13 of censoring the truth.”

“Raviv Drucker is continuing this evening to carry out a criminal field trial against Prime Minister Netanyahu: obstructing court proceedings, threatening state witnesses, all with the goal of trying to tilt the opinion of the judges,” the party said.

The report centered on Case 4000, in which the premier is accused of approving regulatory moves benefiting the controlling shareholder of Bezeq telecoms in exchange for positive news coverage from the company’s Walla news site. Netanyahu, who denies wrongdoing, faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in the case.

Raviv Drucker at the Knesset on May 25, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Likud said the fact that authorities hadn’t arrested Drucker and “are allowing him to run wild with leaks and extortion of witnesses” boosted its claim that “the game is rigged” against Netanyahu, who also faces charges in two other cases.

“In a proper world Raviv Drucker would go to jail today for broadcasting criminal leaks and obstructing criminal proceedings,” it said.

The party then repeated a claim made regularly by Netanyahu that the media is out “to topple the leader of the right wing.”

The statement included a picture of Drucker with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and MK Ofer Shelah of Lapid’s Yesh Atid party. Both Lapid and Shelah are former journalists.

Gantz and several of his coalition allies issued statements defending freedom of the press and saying the role of journalists is to scrutinize those in power.

“That’s how it’s been, that’s how it is now and that’s how it will be,” he wrote on Twitter.

Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, a member of Gantz’s Blue and White party, said the call “for a journalist to be jailed is outrageous and unacceptable in a democracy.”

Lapid, who ran in the last elections as part of Blue and White but broke with Gantz over his decision to join a government with Netanyahu, also responded to the Likud statement.

“In what regimes does a prime minister threaten to send journalists to jail? Let’s set the record straight: Raviv Drucker’s role is to attack the government and the government’s role is to defend Raviv Drucker while he does his job,” he wrote on Twitter.

Yesh Atid MK Yair Lapid speaks during a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on April 19, 2020. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Journalistic associations and a good governance group also rebuked Likud and Netanyahu.

“In a proper democracy neither a prime minister nor anyone on his behalf issues threats of incarceration, explicit or implicit, against reporters, even if they dare to investigate suspicions relating to him personally,” the Israel Press Association said.

It added: “It is still the judicial system, and it alone, that decides on jail sentences.”

The Union of Journalists in Israel called the Likud response a “crossing of a red line” and said it could “encourage harm to the journalist, the media outlet he works for and the freedom of the press.”

The Movement for Quality Government expressed its support for Drucker and other journalists.

“In a normal country a prime minister doesn’t threaten to put a journalist in jail,” the group said.

During Wednesday’s broadcast, Channel 13 aired recordings of Bezeq’s controlling shareholder Shaul Elovitch and his wife, Iris, speaking with Ilan Yeshua, who was CEO of Walla.

Shaul Elovitch arrives at the Jerusalem District Court on May 24, 2020. (Amit Shabi/Pool/Flash90)

In a recording from July 2015, Elovitch can be heard saying Netanyahu was doing many things for him, things “I wouldn’t believe… I feel I owe [him] all the time… and I’m not delivering.”

In another recording, Yeshua complains to Elovitch of being “a marionette” for Netanyahu and warns that news reports benefiting the Netanyahu family must be done “carefully” or management could face a revolt from the newsroom.

Shaul and Iris Elovitch each face bribery charges in the case. They deny wrongdoing.

Netanyahu, the Elovitches and Arnon Mozes — the publisher of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper who is charged with bribery in another case involving the premier — all appeared at the Jerusalem District Court last month for the start of the trial.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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