Smotrich: If PMO officials worked for Qatar, they should ‘sit behind bars for many years’

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says that if employees in the Prime Minister’s Office were working on behalf of Qatar, they should be sent to prison for many years, and says the scandal should be fully investigated by the Shin Bet.

“If there are corrupt people within the Prime Minister’s Office who, amid a war, worked for Qatar, they need to be pilloried and sit behind bars for many years,” Smotrich says at a conference organized by the Makor Rishon newspaper.

Smotrich asserts that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acted throughout the war only based on “relevant considerations.”

If “questionable figures” managed to “infiltrate” the Prime Minister’s Office, “it’s very serious,” says Smotrich, and it needs to be fully investigated by the Shin Bet.

“Someone who was working for an enemy state in a time of war — I don’t have words to describe how despicable and serious it is,” adds Smotrich.

The minister asserts that he never once met Eli Feldstein, a central suspect in the Qatargate affair, throughout the past two years of war.

Asked if it was a problem if Netanyahu didn’t know about the scandal, Smotrich says “it’s a problem,” but says he can’t determine its scope.

He repeats that Netanyahu acted only “with a higher purpose, 100% only with relevant considerations, 100% for the good of the State of Israel and its security and future and existence.”