Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the look stand for the predominant time on Tuesday in his lengthy-working corruption trial, announcing he became being hounded for his hawkish security policies.
Netanyahu, 75, is Israel’s first sitting top minister to be charged with a crime. He is testifying on the an identical time Israel is engaged in a war in Gaza and going by device of doable modern threats posed by regional turmoil, including in Syria.
Final week judges dominated that Netanyahu, indicted in 2019, need to testify three cases every week, forcing the longtime Israeli chief to juggle between the courtroom and the war room at Israel’s Defence Ministry, minutes away from the courthouse.
The chief of the trusty-fly Likud birthday celebration, Netanyahu assailed the Israeli media for what he known as its leftist stance and accused journalists of getting hounded him for years on account of his policies did no longer align with a push for a Palestinian suppose.
“I have been searching forward to eight years for this 2nd to expose the truth,” Netanyahu told the three-judge court. “Nonetheless I’m additionally a top minister … I’m leading the country by device of a seven-entrance war. And I specialise in the 2 would possibly perhaps also be performed in parallel.”
Prosecutors accuse Netanyahu of granting regulatory favours rate spherical 1.8 billion shekels (about $500 million) to Bezeq Telecom Israel (BEZQ.TA) in return for definite coverage of himself and his wife Sara on a recordsdata net site managed by the firm’s dilapidated chairman.
He is additionally accused of negotiating a spread out the owner of Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper for higher coverage in return for guidelines to sluggish the growth of a rival paper.
Netanyahu denies the allegations against him and has pleaded no longer guilty. He stood as a change of sat in the look box all the device by device of his morning testimony.
“Had I wished appropriate coverage all I’d have had to have performed would possibly perhaps be to signal toward a two-suppose solution. … Had I moved two steps to the left I’d have been hailed,” he acknowledged.
In lengthy replies, he portrayed himself as a staunch defender of Israel’s security, withstanding pressures from global powers and a adversarial home media.
TRIAL IN UNDERGROUND COURTROOM
Netanyahu smiled confidently when he entered the Tel Aviv District Court spherical 10 a.m. (0800 GMT). The trial became moved from Jerusalem for undisclosed security causes and convened in an underground courtroom.
Sooner than Netanyahu took the stand, his attorney Amit Hadad laid out for the judges what the defence maintains are main flaws in the investigation. Prosecutors, Hadad acknowledged,”weren’t investigating a crime, they had been going after a particular person.”
About a dozen protesters gathered originate air the courthouse, just a few of them supporters and others annoying he attain extra to barter the birth of some 100 hostages light held by Hamas in Gaza.
Israel has been waging war in Gaza against the Palestinian militant workers for bigger than a year, for the period of which Netanyahu had been granted a extend for the open up of his court appearances. Nonetheless last Thursday, judges dominated that he need to open up testifying.
Charged with bribery, fraud and breach of belief, Netanyahu will testify three cases every week, the court acknowledged, in spite of the Gaza war and doable modern threats posed by wider Center East turmoil.
Netanyahu became indicted in three circumstances involving items from millionaire friends and for allegedly searching for regulatory favours for media tycoons in return for recommended coverage. He denies any wrongdoing.
Within the slip-as much as his court date, Netanyahu revived acquainted pre-war rhetoric against guidelines enforcement, describing investigations against him as a witch hunt. He denies the charges and has pleaded no longer guilty.
DIVISIONS AMONG THE ISRAELI PUBLIC
Sooner than the war, Netanyahu’s ethical troubles bitterly divided Israelis and shook Israeli politics by device of five rounds of elections. His authorities’s expose last year to curb the powers of the judiciary further polarised Israelis.
The shock Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing Gaza war swept Netanyahu’s trial off the general public agenda as Israelis came together in ache and trauma. Nonetheless because the war dragged on, political cohesion crumbled.
In most contemporary weeks, whereas struggling with abated on one entrance after Israel reached a ceasefire with Hamas’ Lebanese ally Hezbollah, members of Netanyahu’s cupboard, including his justice and police ministers, have clashed with the judiciary.
His home ethical woes had been compounded last month when the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him and his dilapidated defence chief Yoav Fearless along with a Hamas chief, for alleged war crimes in the Gaza war.
