Yair Golan tells court Netanyahu suing him to silence talk of alleged ties to Qatar

Defending himself against a defamation lawsuit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Democrats party chief Yair Golan told a court on Wednesday that the premier is seeking to block any public discussion of his alleged ties to Qatar.

The document filed in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court detailed what Golan’s office described as a pattern of behavior in recent years that “raises serious suspicions of [Netanyahu] harming national security for political gain,” and even suspicions that Netanyahu and his associates “sold the security of Israel’s children for Qatari money.”

Golan said he intends to demand the disclosure of documents detailing sources of funding for Netanyahu and the Likud party in recent election campaigns, details of Netanyahu’s bank accounts and assets in Israel and abroad, and records of meetings and conversations with Qatari officials over the past decade.

“Netanyahu fears that his ties with Qatar, and the depth of the most serious security affair in Israel’s history, will be exposed to the public. This is a lawsuit with a clear goal: to silence any public discussion about the connections that led to the strengthening of Hamas, the failure and the massacre of October 7,” Golan said in a statement.

“The citizens of Israel deserve to know the truth, and the court is the place to reveal it. We will demand the disclosure of all documents, testimonies and facts so that the truth comes to light.”

In April, Netanyahu filed a defamation suit against Golan over messages he sent to supporters accusing the premier of peddling the country’s security for money in the so-called Qatargate scandal.

According to the Ynet news site at the time, Netanyahu charged that the message not only “contains false and ugly content” and “fake news, unbridled incitement, and slander,” but was also part of an effort to use such messaging to solicit donations.

Netanyahu is reportedly demanding financial compensation of NIS 320,000 ($86,000) and an order instructing Golan to “refrain from spreading defamation.”

The defamation lawsuit comes against the backdrop of the so-called Qatargate affair, in which Netanyahu’s aides Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein are suspected of committing multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, when working for the prime minister.

Netanyahu, when questioned in connection with the in March, insisted that he had no knowledge of Urich and Feldstein’s ties with Qatar.

Last month, even amid the ongoing lawsuit, Golan called to check the prime minister’s bank accounts to ensure that he had not been accepting Qatari money, in light of senior aides’ financial ties to the Arab state.

“I ask myself a very, very simple thing: The security establishment had warned — and there is plenty of evidence for this — that Qatari money was being used to build Hamas’s power,” Golan told Kan news at the time.

Under Netanyahu, Israel allowed suitcases with millions in Qatari cash to enter Gaza through Israeli crossings between 2018 and 2023, to maintain its fragile ceasefire with the Hamas rulers of the Strip.

“As I understand it, based on media reports, these Shin Bet reports were passed on to the prime minister, and despite that, he continued to transfer the Qatari money. And I ask, in light of his willingness to be very generous to the Qataris and in light of the generosity he feels towards his closest aides and their ties to Qatar… whether it would be unreasonable to check if the prime minister himself, whether his bank account hasn’t been padded with Qatari money.”

Hebrew media have reported that Netanyahu was warned at least twice before the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, that the terror group’s then-military chief, Muhammad Deif, was appropriating funds provided by Qatar to Gaza.

According to near-identical reports by Channel 12 and Kan, Netanyahu was warned in 2019 by then-Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman and again in 2020 by the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate.

Netanyahu’s office has denied that the premier ever received a warning that the Qatari money was being used for terror activity.

Netanyahu was questioned over the Qatargate affair in March, and Channel 12 reported on Monday that he will be questioned again in the near future.

It said that new material obtained by investigators has prompted them to seek another interview with the prime minister.

As was the case the first time around, Netanyahu is expected to be questioned as someone with knowledge of the affair, rather than as a suspect, the report said, although a decision could subsequently be made to question the premier under caution as a suspect in the case.