Netanyahu’s defense attorneys threaten to quit if number of weekly hearings not reduced

In a submission to the Jerusalem District Court, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense attorneys in his criminal trial threaten to resign if the number of hearings every week is not reduced.

Yesterday, the court rejected requests from Netanyahu’s defense team to reduce the pace of hearings, after lead defense attorney Amit Hadad said he could not attend hearings on Sundays due to his court schedule for other clients.

Netanyahu’s attorneys tell the court today that they will not be able to handle four hearings a week as the court has insisted, and will ask that the court allow them to stop representing the prime minister if their request for a reduction in the number of hearings is refused.

The prime minister’s lawyers also say that Netanyahu is not practically able to attend three hearings a week as per the court’s demands, due to the current circumstances of the country.

Netanyahu has repeatedly sought to reduce the number of hearings per week, and the court has cancelled numerous hearings due to the prime minister’s duties and health problems.

The court recently decided to increase the number of hearings per week because of the repeated delays and the amount of time that the trial has already taken — having started in 2020 — and due to the possibility that Netanyahu’s testimony alone could last until April 2026 and that the trial itself will drag on into 2027.