Netanyahu defends ‘excellent’ coalition whip amid corruption investigation

PARIS — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday backed his embattled coalition chair David Bitan, in his first public statement on the corruption investigation into the top Likud MK.

Netanyahu, who was in France on a two-day visit, also insisted his coalition was stable and would continue to hold.

“David Bitan enjoys the presumption of innocence,” Netanyahu said of the coalition whip, who is suspected of receiving bribes, fraud, money laundering and breach of trust.

“I respect him, and I really like him,” Netanyahu says. “He’s doing excellent work as coalition whip.”

Speaking to Israeli reporters at the Israeli embassy in Paris shortly after his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Netanyahu rejected reports that his governing coalition was in any danger.

“They’ve been saying for 10 years that the coalition will collapse tomorrow,” he said. “I don’t see the coalition falling apart.”

Earlier on Sunday, Bitan faced his third round of questioning at the Lahav 433 national crime headquarters in Lod, in the wide-reaching corruption scandal that has been tied to dozens of city officials from the Rishon Lezion and the Tel Aviv municipalities, as well as local businesspeople and underworld figures.

Police are reportedly in possession of an incriminating recording of Bitan in which he can be heard counting money with his associate Moshe Yosef, a businessman from Rishon Lezion who was arrested earlier this week in connection with the investigation.

According to Hadashot TV news, Yosef is a key suspect in the case and handled the bribes Bitan is suspected of receiving from contractors in exchange for granting tenders while serving as deputy mayor of Rishon Lezion.

In remarks to reporters in Paris, Netanyahu refused to discuss in detail various controversial legislative proposals that are currently being debated in the Knesset, saying only that the crisis surrounding the mini-market law “will be solved.”

The ultra-Orthodox coalition parties are pushing for the bill — which would shutter mini-markets on Saturdays — to be voted into law, but the Yisrael Beytenu party opposes it.