Labor chief denies involvement in latest graft scandal

Labor party chairman Avi Gabbay, a former Bezeq telecom CEO, says the graft case involving the company he formerly headed causes him “deep sorrow,” but denies involvement.

Police suspect that Shaul Elovitch, owner of the Walla news site and the controlling shareholder of the Bezeq communications company, swayed coverage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Walla in exchange for the Communications Ministry enacting policies potentially worth hundreds of millions of shekels for Elovitch.

Several senior Bezeq officials and confidants of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been arrested in the case.

“The company employees are very dear to me and when I hear about this case and those that preceded it, I feel very deep sorrow for them,” says Gabbay.

He says the incidents in the case took place in 2015-2016, while he left in 2013.

“I had no influence over the sister companies,” says Gabbay, referring, among others, to the Walla news site.

He says he was aware that and Elovitch “were friends” but says he knew nothing beyond that.

Gabbay also reprimands Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid for meeting with Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan while finance minister, saying “it shouldn’t have happened.”

“We will uproot the phenomenon of billionaire friends who heap presents on the leadership,” he vows.

— Marissa Newman