Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Jerusalem District Court, prosecutor Liat Ben Ari makes her opening statement at the start of the evidentiary stage of his trial, laying out the state’s case against the premier.
In the courtroom, Netanyahu writes notes on a pad of paper and watches Ben-Ari as she delivers her address, describing the ways in which the prime minister allegedly abused the powers of his office in three cases: Case 1000, Case 2000 and Case 4000.
“The case before the honorable court today is a significant and severe case of regime corruption. The first suspect is the prime minister of Israel who, according to the indictment, used his great power in a forbidden way,” Ben-Ari reads from her prepared statement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits alone in the back bench of the Jerusalem District Court and scribbles notes as Liat Ben Ari begins her speech, March 5, 2021. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Pool)
The prime minister and most of his attorneys donned black face masks for the trial, while most of the prosecution opted for white ones, as they sit in the small courtroom in the Jerusalem District Court in East Jerusalem.
Outside, pro-Netanyahu demonstrators use megaphones and speakers to voice their support for the premier and to blast upbeat music.
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Monday, April 5, 2021
