No probe to be opened into missing gifts Netanyahu got from pope, other dignitaries
State Prosecutor Amit Aisman says no sufficient evidence of misappropriation in disappearance of 30 presents, some valuable, from PM’s residence after Netanyahu left office in 2021
State Prosecutor Amit Aisman has decided not to open a criminal probe into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the disappearance from the Prime Minister’s Residence of valuable gifts that foreign dignitaries gave to the state during his previous tenure as premier, Hebrew media reports said Wednesday.
“The fact that gifts weren’t found after they were used for display isn’t, in itself, sufficient to attest necessarily to a suspected criminal offense,” Aisman wrote in his decision, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
“And in any case, the currently existing body of evidence doesn’t establish a reasonable suspicion that justifies opening a criminal probe or investigation, and the chance [of it producing an indictment] is low.”
According to details provided by the Prime Minister’s Office to the Movement for Quality Government watchdog in June 2022 following a freedom of information request, there are some 30 gifts that are allegedly missing from the Prime Minister’s Residence which, according to the Gifts Law 1979, are the property of the state.
The list of gifts includes what is recorded as the first copy of the Hebrew Bible to come with the now-ubiquitous commentary of the 11th-century Jewish sage known as Rashi, given to Netanyahu by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Moscow; an ornamental case containing a golden coin given to Netanyahu by Pope Francis during a visit to Israel; a rectangular glass casket decorated with gold leaves by the artist Stefan Schlanser given by former US president Barack Obama; and numerous other items.
In August 2021 the legal adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office, Shlomit Barnea Farago, wrote to Netanyahu requesting he return the gifts to the Prime Minister’s Residence, but it was not till December that year that his lawyers held a meeting with her to discuss the issue.
During the meeting, Netanyahu’s lawyers said they could not return the gifts because “some were broken and some were lost,” and subsequently sent a letter to Barnea Farago insisting Netanyahu was not responsible for locating the missing gifts.
Aisman wrote in his decision Wednesday that there was a fairly good chance that some of the gifts had accidentally been broken or were lost while being stored at the Prime Minister’s Office or while being packaged, especially in light of renovations held in the office during Netanyahu’s tenure.
Kan cited unnamed sources in the Justice Ministry saying that while the disappearances were concerning and reflected a failure to preserve state property, the evidence is insufficient even for civil proceedings in the absence of the Prime Minister’s Office’s ability to record and monitor the gifts’ whereabouts.
In January, the High Court of Justice ordered law enforcement agencies to explain why they had not opened a criminal investigation into the matter, following a petition filed by the Movement for Quality Government demanding it order the law agencies to open an investigation.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
