Netanyahu facing calls in Likud to drop immunity request — reports

Prime Minister Netanyahu is facing growing calls in his Likud party to pull his request for parliamentary immunity from graft charges, according to reports on Israel’s main evening news broadcasts.

Some Likud lawmakers believe that, as a majority of Knesset members oppose granting him immunity, the outcome of the upcoming Knesset House Committee hearings has already been determined, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

The report says the Likud lawmakers also believe the immunity hearings could hurt Likud at the polls when Israelis vote on March 2.

According to Channel 13 news, some of Netanyahu’s close advisers are urging him to drop his immunity request, saying it will benefit him politically, despite it meaning criminal charges will formally be filed against him.

Netanyahu is still considering the move and has not made a decision, the network says.

The prime minister faces charges of fraud and breach of trust in three cases, as well as bribery in one of them. He denies wrongdoing and has called the investigations a witch hunt.