Coalition members praise Netanyahu’s decision to request pardon in corruption trial

Senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition praise his decision to seek a formal pardon from President Isaac Herzog, potentially ending his long-running corruption trial.

In a statement, coalition whip MK Ofir Katz of Netanyahu’s Likud party says while it was “clear to everyone that the most political trial is collapsing” and Netanyahu “could easily have proven his innocence in this corrupt persecution,” he instead chose another path “for the sake of healing the country and reconciliation.”

“A true leader who always puts the good of the state before his personal good,” Katz declares.

Granting Netanyahu a pardon is “critical for the security of the state,” argues National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, emphasizing what he describes as the “critical necessity” to enact changes to the judicial system, “especially reform of the corrupt and despicable state prosecution which fabricated the Netanyahu cases.”

“It’s time to free Israel from the Netanyahu trial saga that is tearing the nation apart,” says Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar. “The right thing to do is to grant the pardon request for the sake of the country’s future.”

However, not every Netanyahu partisan agrees with his choice, with firebrand Likud MK Tally Gotliv asking why the prime minister would make such a request and arguing that she feels “pain and humiliation in light of the pardon submission.”

“Your trial is bigger than you and all of us. You have demonstrated the persecution against you and the right wing in ways that cannot be described. Only in recent weeks has the full extent of the persecution and lies been revealed in all their horror,” she writes on X.