Police said to weigh summoning senior politicians for testimony on Qatargate

Police are considering summoning senior politicians to give testimony in the so-called Qatargate probe that has ensnared several advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Channel 13 news reports.

The report, which doesn’t cite sources, says the unnamed politicians spoke to people involved in the affair and gave them information about Qatar and the war, without knowing their words were being used for allegedly illicit purposes.

Summoning the politicians would require the approval of the State Prosecutor’s Office and the attorney general.

Additionally, the report says police are preparing for the option of no questioning ever being conducted of pro-Qatari American lobbyist Jay Footlik, who is suspected of directly financing Qatargate suspect Jonatan Urich’s alleged activities.

Urich, along with Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein, allegedly spearheaded a pro-Qatari public relations campaign to cast the Gulf state in a positive light ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, hosted in Doha, and reportedly continued his PR work for Qatar well after the October 7 attack sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, despite the Gulf nation’s strong ties to the terror group.

Urich, Feldstein and a third adviser to Netanyahu, Yisrael Einhorn, are suspected of multiple offenses tied to their alleged pro-Qatar lobbying, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, all while working for the prime minister.