PM claims he didn’t check before signing papers benefitting businessman in bribery case

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted during his testimony in court on Monday that he was unaware that his approval of two regulatory decisions would benefit Bezeq and Walla owner Shaul Elovitch, and that he was unaware of communications between his aides and Elovitch about such matters.

Speaking on the fifth day of his testimony, the prime minister claimed that he signed such authorizations only after professional civil servants and lawyers in either the Prime Minister’s Office or other relevant ministries approved them, and claimed he did not even understand the effect of the regulatory decision he was approving.

And in a moment of heightened emotion, Netanyahu demanded to know why, if his approval of such decisions was corrupt, communications minister Gilad Erdan, who also approved them and who was also allegedly in touch with Elovitch, had not also been indicted.

The regulatory decisions in question are key to the charges in Case 4000 against Netanyahu, in which the most serious allegations have been leveled at the prime minister, specifically that he approved these decisions in return for the bribe of good media coverage he received from the Elovitch-owned Walla news website.

During Monday’s testimony, Netanyahu’s main argument against the allegations was that he had no knowledge that his decisions might help Elovitch’s business interests and that he was not lobbied to approve them either.

Netanyahu also argued that his approval of the regulatory decisions highlighted by the prosecution did not actually provide Elovitch with any additional benefit that was not due to him as the owner of the businesses that were the subject of the authorizations.

As throughout his testimony, Netanyahu also again argued that Walla was especially hostile to him, as prime minister, and that not only did he not receive positive coverage on the news site, as alleged by prosecutors, but that it was actively negative.

This claim was acutely reflected when Netanyahu’s defense attorney, Amit Hadad, highlighted an opinion article on Walla published in December 2013, when the alleged agreement with Elovitch was supposedly in effect, accusing the prime minister of being an “Israeli Ahmadinejad,” referring to the former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who, the article asserted, helped isolate Tehran diplomatically.

The op-ed was entitled “Netanyahu has a lot to learn from Rouhani,” who succeeded Ahmadinejad. It also accused the prime minister of using “vulgar” and “animalistic and shallow” language in response to a Hamas terror attack, and of failing to effectively advance Israel’s diplomatic standing.

“This is my home website? Today I’m called Hitler, Stalin, Ceausescu… This is special treatment, him calling me an Israeli Ahmadinejad?” said Netanyahu sarcastically, in reference to the prosecution’s allegation that Walla’s coverage serially served the prime minister’s interests.

Addressing Netanyahu’s approval in January 2014 of a permit approving the issuance of bonds by B-Com, Bezeq’s parent company, which the indictment says was important financially for Elovitch, the prime minister said he did not remember signing the document.

He said that he signs a dozen such approvals a week and has signed thousands during his tenure as prime minister, and does so in a pro forma manner.

If such an authorization arrives on his desk, Netanyahu explained, it means it has been approved by professional civil servants and legal officials in the ministry where the measure was prepared, or from within the Prime Minister’s Office itself, and that he therefore assumes the process for approving them is legal and legitimate.

“If it didn’t pass one of those stages, it wouldn’t get to me,” Netanyahu told the judges, arguing that the approval regarding B-Com was prepared and approved by professional civil servants in the Communications Ministry, which he was not aware of and not involved in.

“I don’t remember one incident in which I didn’t sign,” Netanyahu added in reference to what he said is the multitude of such bureaucratic authorizations which are brought for him to sign as prime minister.

It was not, he asserted categorically, part of any quid pro quo agreement with Elovitch which the indictment alleges.

“We didn’t discuss this, not a word,” said Netanyahu in response to a question as to whether he and Elovitch talked about approving the permit for B-Com to issue the bonds. “At the actual time I didn’t understand anything [about it]. I didn’t even know what I was signing. Now I understand that there was a changing of the guard of the interface process, a replacement of a trustee,” said Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s attorney Hadad also pointed out that, when questioned by investigators about the authorization, the prime minister had, at the time, said he did not recall the authorization and asked the investigators what the position of the professional civil servants on such a decision had been.

“If I dealt with all these approvals I wouldn’t be prime minister,” said Netanyahu, meaning he would not have time for anything else, adding that he reads the headlines of such documents only if he has time, and likened the process to signing reefs of documents at the bank.

“I didn’t know about the authorization, and I didn’t speak with Shaul even one word about it,” Netanyahu averred.

Hadad also addressed the sale of the Yad2 website by Elovitch, the authorization for which Netanyahu signed on May 14, 2014, netting Elovitch NIS 800 million and which the indictment says was financially important for the Walla and Bezeq owner.

The NIS 800 million represents almost half of the NIS 1.8 billion from which the indictment alleges that Elovitch benefited through his arrangement with Netanyahu and the regulatory decisions the prime minister authorized as a result of that relationship.

Netanyahu insisted that, here too, he signed this authorization since it was one of many that arrived on his desk as a matter of routine after being approved by professional civil servants and legal officials, and that he had no knowledge that it was important to Elovitch.

He also insisted that the need for him to authorize the sale was a matter of excessive bureaucracy and that Elovitch did not receive “even one shekel” from the state as a result of Netanyahu signing off on the sale.

“This was a regular transaction. I didn’t know why I was being questioned [about it],” Netanyahu said in court, in reference to the questions the police asked him about the sale during the investigative stage of the case.

“I asked them [the police] what the position of the professional civil servants was. If they skipped over the legal advisers or someone else from the professional civil ranks? If so, I understand why they’re investigating, but if it passed all the professional ranks – then what are they investigating me for?” said Netanyahu.

“I asked them, I don’t think I got an answer. They should answer now.”

Hadad also asked him about a phone call he held with Elovitch on May 10, four days before he signed the authorization of the sale of Yad 2. Netanyahu said that he called the Bezeq owner because of his expertise in the Japanese economy and because the prime minister was scheduled to visit Japan on May 11.

The indictment alleges that Elovitch was in contact with Netanyahu and his aides, as well as with aides to then communications minister Erdan, to expedite the approval of the sale because Elovitch was concerned that the buyer would drop out of the deal if the authorization process took too long.

“These are false accusations which are tied to a presentation to the public as if a bribe was given here… [It is] a dishonest lie and a lie that is not supported by anything,” insisted Netanyahu angrily and in a raised voice about the allegations in the indictment, adding that he did not know how much Elovitch stood to earn from the deal.

“Why did you not indict Erdan? He also signed [the authorization],” Netanyahu demanded, referring to the prosecutor, and asserting that the indictment against himself was, therefore, the creation of the State Attorney’s office.

Netanyahu also denied knowledge that his aides were in touch with Elovitch to get Erdan to also expedite the approval process, as the indictment alleges.

The charges against Netanyahu

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.