Netanyahu, 1st PM to testify as criminal defendant, ridicules charges, denies illicit media ties

In an event nearly five years in the making, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally took to the witness stand on Tuesday in his criminal trial on corruption charges, the first time in Israeli history that a serving prime minister has appeared in court to testify as a defendant.

Tensions outside the court and within were high, with the prime minister’s allies and detractors vociferously deriding each other, and with a huge media presence in the courthouse to cover the unprecedented sight of an Israeli prime minister having to answer questions in front of a panel of judges about his alleged criminal conduct.

The prime minister was animated in the responses he gave to the questions posed to him by his defense attorneys, and was eager to expound at length on his accomplishments as prime minister, his fortitude under pressure, and his attitude toward and policies to advance a free market for opinions in the media, a key part of two of the cases against him.

With one of the cases against him centered on alleged illicit gifts of cigars and champagne, Netanyahu also took pains to deny that he lives the good life. “I work 17-18 hours a day. I eat my lunch at my desk. Waiters in white gloves don’t serve me meals. I work around the clock, into the small hours. I usually go to sleep at around 1 or 2 in the morning and have almost no time to see family or children,” he said. “Now and then, I sin with a cigar, which I can’t smoke at length because I’m always in meetings and briefings… By the way, I loathe champagne; I simply don’t like it and I can’t drink it.”

“To depict [my wife] Sara and me as living the good life, isn’t merely absurd, not merely a distortion, it’s shameful and disgraceful.”

His lawyer Amit Hadad charged, in an opening statement, that Israel Police investigators “did not investigate a crime, they investigated a man. Our claim is that they not only went after a man and not a crime, but also that when they didn’t find a crime, they invented a crime.” Hadad compared this behavior to Stalin’s Soviet Union, quoting a statement attributed to Stalin’s secret police chief: “Give me the man, and I will give you the case against him.”

The hearings are taking place in an underground hall in the Tel-Aviv Jaffa District Court for security reasons, since the Jerusalem District Court house lacks adequate security arrangements.

Proceedings were interrupted on several occasions by aides delivering him information about external events to the court proceedings, and on one occasion the prime minister was granted permission to leave the courtroom to address the issue. Senior Israeli ministers had pleaded in vain with the court to delay his testimony, arguing that the ouster of the Assad regime in Syria exacerbated the burdens on a prime minister already helming Israel amidst a multifront war.

Several Likud legislators turned up to the court to show their support for the prime minister, including Knesset speaker Amir Ohana and Ministers Shlomo Karhi, Irit Silman and Miri Regev, as well as Otzma Yehudit minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Some, including the excitable Tali Gotliv, remained in court all day. Gotliv frequently heckled the prosecution attorneys when they objected to procedural concerns. Many leading Likud figures stayed away, however.

Outside the courthouse, small dueling groups of protesters rallied on either side of the entrance with some 100 participants at each demonstration.

Police separated Netanyahu’s supporters and detractors, who largely drowned each other out in a din of competing chants.

Ridiculing the allegations in Case 4000

During the approximately five hours in which he gave testimony (including time for breaks), Netanyahu sought to undermine central tenets of the prosecution’s case against him, particularly regarding Case 4000. This is the most serious of the cases against him, in which he faces a charge of bribery as well as fraud and breach of trust.

He is accused of authorizing regulatory decisions that financially benefited Bezeq telecommunications giant majority shareholder Shaul Elovitch to the tune of hundreds of millions of shekels, and in return for which he received positive media coverage from the Walla news website which Elovitch also owned.

Netanyahu and his pugnacious defense attorney Hadad sought to paint a picture in which the prime minister and Elovitch were not well acquainted, and that even after a dinner in 2012 hosted by Netanyahu and his wife Sara for Elovitch and his wife, which the prosecution alleges was the beginning of an illegal arrangement between the two, Walla’s coverage of Netanyahu did not become more favorable.

Critically, the prime minister said that he did not remember signing authorizations in 2012 to grant Elovitch ownership over Bezeq, saying that he had signed “thousands” of such authorizations during his time in office. Netanyahu explained at length how his chief of staff brings him sheafs of papers for him to sign and that he does so without reading the documentation, saying that if a minister approved it, he would almost always sign off.

Hadad also pointed to an authorization that benefited Elovitch signed by Netanyahu in 2010, predating the time in which the prosecution alleges that the two men formulated their supposedly mutually beneficial agreement.

Netanyahu repeatedly insisted during his testimony that there was nothing illegitimate or illegal in officials from his Likud party requesting changes to Walla’s coverage, including specific articles, or requesting that the site publish items such officials requested.

Indeed, the prime minister claimed that such interactions between politicians and the press were a critical part of democracy, and compared himself to American founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, who he said sought to utilize the press to their political advantage.

Netanyahu also acknowledged that during his time as prime minister he spoke with different businessmen in an effort to change what he described as the “monolithic” Israeli media market, which the prime minister claimed reflected only the opinion of the leftwing political camp in the country.

The prime minister’s arguments about media coverage and his interactions with the owners of media outlets are key to his defense, since he does not deny seeking to alter and improve the coverage he received from Walla, but rather denies that there was any aspect of him accepting better coverage as a bribe as part of an agreement with Elovitch.

“We’re in a battle for public opinion. Not only in Israel, but worldwide,” he said. “You cannot defend or anchor a military victory without a diplomatic victory; you need to win over public opinion. [Left-wing] Ha’aretz’s [publisher] Amos Schocken won’t change, and nor will the others. So either buy new media outlets or set up others. What’s important is that there is diversity [of media].”

“I thought, either they’ll bring investors from here or overseas, or buy existing media outlets and change them. I didn’t act in this way in order to glorify myself but because I wanted public support for my positions,” he testified. “I wanted them to give support to the policies that I want. What’s the point of having authority? What for? To sit on a chair? There are more comfortable chairs in the world. You come to influence policy.

“I was astonished when they asked me in the [police] investigations, I said, ‘Are you serious? What are you talking about? This is in the indictment? The most basic democratic thing? The obligation to diversify different markets? That is seen as criminal?’” Netanyahu said during his testimony.

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Netanyahu said that he first met Elovitch in 1996 or 1997 during his first term as prime minister, when he would hold a forum for business leaders, and then in such meetings during his time as finance minister from 2002.

The prime minister said that he never met with Elovitch personally during that time, and that the next time they were together was when Elovitch paid a shiva visit on the death of Netanyahu’s father-in-law. “A tight relationship was not formed. Friendly relations were created but not beyond that,” he told the court.

“The important point is that all this case is based on this ridiculous assertion that there was some kind of telepathy [between Netanyahu and Elovitch] about an agreement which never happened,” said Netanyahu at the end of the hearing.

“You also saw what terrible coverage I got [from Walla]. The claim is that I got special treatment. You asked me if there was a change in Walla’s treatment of me after the dinner; there was no change before or after.”

Addressing his concerns about the media environment in Israel, Netanyahu freely acknowledged that he had repeatedly sought to influence the owners of media outlets, citing his interactions with the former head of Channel 2 by way of example.

“Until recently, Israel had very monolithic media. We don’t want to take control of the media; we want to diversify the media,” said Netanyahu.

“The most important thing is to add more TV stations which aren’t controlled by one camp; that’s what is essential. That is the agenda I went with. I said ‘We need investors for diversity [in the press].’ Either for them to buy existing platforms or create new ones… I saw that either we need investors to build new outlets or buy existing ones,” the prime minister continued, and said he had spoken to potential investors about his concern.

Weeks of testimony scheduled

In the coming weeks, Netanyahu is to give testimony every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with court sessions scheduled through the end of December. The court sessions are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and end at 4 p.m. every day of the hearings, with a break for lunch.

Netanyahu’s defense attorneys are questioning the prime minister first, over the course of several days, and will likely allow him to expound at length on what he perceives to be the injustices of the charges against him and the key aspects of his defense.

Once the defense concludes its questions, the lawyers for the prosecution from the State Attorney’s Office will be given the chance to cross-examine Netanyahu, which will likely last for the majority of time the prime minister is at the witness stand.

The prime minister’s defense attorneys will then be able to call Netanyahu back to the stand to clarify aspects of his testimony under cross-examination should they so wish.

The court has said that should pressing matters requiring the prime minister’s attention arise, it will consider whether or not to call a recess to allow him to address the concern at hand.

Amid an ongoing war and with the Middle East in chaos, it would be reasonable to expect a not-insignificant number of interruptions to the court proceedings during Netanyahu’s testimony.

The court has already agreed to begin Wednesday’s hearing at 2:30 p.m. to allow Netanyahu to be present in the Knesset for the visit of Paraguay President Santiago Peña.

The charges

Netanyahu is on trial in three corruption cases. He faces charges of fraud and breach of trust in Case 1000 and Case 2000, and charges of bribery, as well as fraud and breach of trust in Case 4000.

Case 1000 revolves around allegations that Netanyahu and his wife Sara received expensive gifts illicitly from Hollywood media mogul Arnon Milchan worth some NIS 700,000 and that Netanyahu violated conflict of interest laws when he provided Milchan with assistance in renewing his long-term US residency visa and sought to help him with tax issues.

In Case 2000, the prime minister is accused of fraud and breach of trust over his alleged attempt to reach a quid pro quo agreement with the publisher of the Yedioth Aharaonot newspaper Arnon (Noni) Mozes, whereby Yedioth would give the prime minister more positive media coverage in exchange for legislation weakening its key rival, the Israel Hayom free sheet.

Case 4000, also known as the Bezeq-Walla case, is the most serious the prime minister faces, in which he is accused of authorizing regulatory decisions that financially benefited Bezeq telecommunications giant shareholder Elovitch by hundreds of millions of shekels. In return, Netanyahu allegedly received favorable media coverage from the Walla news site, which Elovitch also owned.

Netanyahu denies wrongdoing and says the charges were fabricated in a political coup led by the police and state prosecution.

At a press conference on Monday night, Netanyahu charged that police investigators and state prosecutors “didn’t find a crime, so they concocted a crime…. They arrest dozens of people around me, they ruin their lives, they extort them with threats so they’ll give false testimony… isolation, sleep deprivation. Everything so that they give false testimony.”

“Everything goes,” he added, “in the effort to bring down Bibi.”