Report: Court extended PM aides’ remand after seeing Qatargate-linked financial docs
Judge who overturned release order for Urich and Feldstein said to have been shown receipts, bank account information related to alleged PR campaign for Hamas-backing Gulf state
The court that extended the house arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top aides, who are suspected of receiving payments from Hamas-backer Qatar, did so after police submitted financial documents linked to suspects in the case, Hebrew media reported Friday.
The court had on Thursday issued the order regarding Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, reversing an earlier decree to let the two go after being presented with classified evidence.
Channel 13 said the documents included “various receipts” and the bank account information of some suspects, including Jay Footlik, an American lobbyist for the Qatari government, who has allegedly paid Netanyahu’s close aide Urich hundreds of thousands of dollars to boost Qatar’s image.
Police were trying to understand what Qatar, through Footlik, had “paid for this service,” Channel 13 said. According to the report, investigators are focusing on the alleged flow of funds from Footlik to Urich via the public relations firm Perception, which is owned by Urich’s friend and former colleague Yisrael Einhorn.
Urich and Einhorn maintain they received payments unrelated to alleged efforts to boost Qatar’s image in Israel, Channel 13 reported.
The Tel Aviv District Court had on Thursday overturned a lower court’s ruling to release Urich and Feldstein, another Netanyahu aide suspected in the affair, citing concern the pair could obstruct the investigation. Their house arrest was extended by two weeks, though police had requested three.
Einhorn has not been arrested and has remained out of Israel since the so-called Qatargate case was made public in November. Police are seeking to hold a deposition with him in Serbia, where he serves as an adviser to President Aleksandar Vucic. Channel 13 said investigators also intend to interrogate Footlik in the coming two weeks.
The network and other Hebrew media had reported on Thursday on “talking points” ostensibly representing Israel’s stance on Qatar that were sent to Israeli reporters, but were written up by Footlik.
The reports said the messages included the statements that Egypt — who like Qatar has been mediating talks between Israel and Hamas — enabled the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, by allowing arms smuggling to Gaza; that Egypt, unlike Qatar, was unfit to mediate; that Israel requested for Hamas leaders to reside in Qatar; that Israel asked Qatar to transfer funds to Gaza; and that Qatar has military significance for Israel.
Channel 13 on Friday cited law enforcement officials as saying the messages indicated a Qatari infiltration of the “holiest of holies,” the Prime Minister’s Office, and showed how deeply Qatar was involved in Israeli society.
In response to the report, Urich’s lawyers denied he was familiar with the talking points, while an attorney for Feldstein said all messages his client relayed were at the instruction of his superiors at the Prime Minister’s Office.
In the Qatargate affair, Urich and Feldstein are suspected of multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corruption charges involving lobbyists and businessmen, while they were working for the prime minister.
Several additional people have been questioned in connection with the scandal, including Netanyahu, who is not a suspect and denies all knowledge of the matter.
Aside from Qatargate, Feldstein was charged in November with harming national security in a separate case involving the theft and leaking of material from a classified IDF document to the German daily Bild to sway public opinion toward Netanyahu. Urich is also a suspect in that case.
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.