Supreme Court rules PM must provide details of conversations with Sheldon Adelson

The Supreme Court rules that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must publicize a full account of his phone calls with conservative American Jewish gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson, his backer and publisher of the free newspaper Israel Hayom.

According to the ruling, the prime minister will also need to disclose the dates of phone conversations with the editor-in-chief of the paper, which is widely regarded as strongly pro-Netanyahu in its orientation.

The court’s decision came in answer to an appeal by Channel 10 journalist Raviv Drucker and overturned a 2016 ruling of the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court which in turn had overturned a previous 2015 Jerusalem District Court ruling ordering the information be released.

The reports had originally been requested in accordance with the Freedom of Information Law on the grounds that the information is of public interest.

“The public interest in releasing this information outweighs the considerations for Netanyahu and Adelson’s right to privacy,” Justice Menachem Mazuz wrote in the ruling.

Netanyahu is currently a criminal suspect in “Case 2000,” investigating a suspected quid pro quo deal with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes in which the two seemed to discuss an illicit agreement that would have seen the prime minister hobble Israel Hayom, in return for more favorable coverage from Yedioth.