Report: Netanyahu aide Urich admits Qatar paid him hundreds of thousands of shekels; he kept working for Doha after Oct. 7, saw no moral issue

Jonatan Urich, a senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a key suspect in the Qatargate scandal, has admitted to investigators that he received “hundreds of thousands of shekels” from Qatar, and that he worked for Doha before and long after the Hamas-led October 7 massacre, Channel 12 reports, citing interrogation transcripts.

Asked when he stopped working for the Qataris, Urich said he did not remember, but thought it was “mid-to-late 2024.” He said the work was “not in Israel” and that the project, aimed at improving Qatar’s image, ended after former Netanyahu adviser Yisrael Einhorn, also a suspect in the affair, told him it was over.

Asked how much he had been paid for the Qatar project, Urich said he received “hundreds of thousands of shekels,” but could not give an exact figure.

Nonetheless, in another reported exchange, when investigators told him they had materials showing that he was paid to promote Qatar’s interests after Hamas’s October 7 attack. Urich denied it, saying, “That’s not true.”

When investigators asked whether Netanyahu knew he was being paid to promote Qatar, a longtime funder of Hamas that Netanyahu’s government has said is harming Israel. Urich replied, “I don’t report to the prime minister about the things I do,” adding that “there’s a huge difference between what happens abroad and what happens here.”

Asked whether he had disclosed his work to either side, Urich said that, as an outside consultant, he had never been required to do so. He added that a 2022 campaign he worked on to boost Qatar’s image ahead of the FIFA World Cup had not stopped him from “attacking Qatar from Israel.”

Investigators then cited Netanyahu’s testimony that there was “no way” Urich was receiving money from Qatar. Urich replied, “That’s between him and me.”

Urich said he would not have worked on the World Cup campaign without the involvement of Maj. Gen. (res.) Yoav “Poli” Mordechai, whom he described as “dear to me,” and former Mossad officials. “I didn’t see a moral problem if these respected people were doing it,” he said.

When investigators asked how he could have continued working for Qatar after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, Urich replied, “I didn’t see a conflict here. I don’t see it as a moral problem.” He also said, “I don’t think I did anything immoral or unprofessional.”

Urich was indicted in June for allegedly transmitting classified information with the intent to harm state security in the so-called Bild affair.

Prosecutors sought in vain to ban him from the Prime Minister’s Office, and Urich continues to work closely with Netanyahu.