JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to trial on Monday for his corruption trial, as the country’s political parties were to determine whether to form the next government after a tightly divided election or stop focusing on legal issues.
Between eyewitness testimony in a Jerusalem courtroom and consultations at the president’s office across the city, it pledged to be a day of extraordinary political drama, highlighting Netanyahu’s desperate efforts to maintain to power.
He is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and has clung to power through four hard-fought elections in less than two years, even when he has faced allegations of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. The March 23 election was largely a referendum on his leadership, but he did not produce a clear verdict.
Meanwhile, Israeli political parties began meeting with President Reuven Rivlin to recommend which candidate should have the task of forming the next government.
After each election, the Israeli president is responsible for appointing a party leader to try to gather a government majority. This decision is usually clear, but Rivlin faces a difficult decision given the fragmentation of election results left by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, divided between 13 parties with wide ideological differences.
Neither Netanyahu’s allies nor his enemies got the government majority. Thus, his fate could fall on Naftali Bennett, a former right-wing ally with whom he has ties, and Mansour Abbas, the leader of a small Arab Islamist party that has not yet committed to the pros or cons. against the Netanyahu. blocks.
On Monday, Bennett recommended himself as the next prime minister, delving deeper into Israel’s political blockade. His right-wing party Yamina had been in a position to serve as king, but refused to take sides.
Yamina has only seven seats in parliament, which is a big effort to form a governing coalition. Bennett hopes he can become a consensus candidate who can bridge deep divisions between rival factions.
Rivlin was quoted earlier by Israeli media as saying he did not see how any ruling coalition could be formed and expressed concern that Israel would enter a fifth round of elections.
In the Jerusalem district court, Netanyahu sat down with his lawyers while the chief prosecutor, Liat Ben-Ari, read the charges against him.
“The relationship between Netanyahu and the defendants turned into currency, which could be changed,” he said. “The currency could distort the judgment of a public official.”
Netanyahu’s lawyers tried to refute, but were cut short by Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman, who said they had already responded to the charges before the trial. The judge then ordered a brief recess, during which Netanyahu left the court.
Outside the room, dozens of supporters and opponents of the prime minister gathered to protest on opposite sides of the building amid a strong police presence, highlighting Israel’s deep divisions. Anti-Netanyahu protesters have been holding weekly demonstrations for months, demanding his resignation.
A few miles away, a delegation from the Likud party, right-wing Netanyahu, formally recommended him as prime minister in a meeting with Rivlin.
Netanyahu is accused of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust in three cases.
The first is that Netanyahu allegedly received gifts for hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy friends, including Hollywood film producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer. In the second case, Netanyahu is accused of trying to orchestrate positive coverage in a major Israeli newspaper in exchange for slowing down the distribution of a free pro-Netanyahu newspaper.
The third case, dubbed Case 4000, which will focus on Monday’s first testimony, alleges that Netanyahu backed the legislation by hundreds of millions of dollars to the owner of Israeli telecommunications giant Bezeq in exchange for positive coverage of his Walla news site.
Netanyahu has denied any illegal offense and dismissed the charges against him as part of a “witch hunt” by the media and law enforcement to dismiss him. His trial began last year and could last two more years.
In January, prosecutors alleged 315 cases of Walla who was asked to change his coverage, so it was more favorable for Netanyahu and his family. They said 150 of them involved Netanyahu himself.
According to the charges, Shaul Elovitch, CEO of Bezeq, “exerted strong and continuous pressure” on Ilan Yeshua, Walla’s former chief editor, to change articles on the website to meet the demands of Netanyahu and his family.
Yeshua, who took a stand after Netanyahu’s departure, said he regularly received requests from Elovitch and aides to the prime minister, asking him to dirty the prime minister’s political opponents, including Bennett. He then forwarded the requests to the main editors of the site.
Yeshua said Bennett was the “naughty religious” of internal messages.
Israeli law does not require the resignation of prime ministers while he is under indictment and Netanyahu has refused to do so. This has left the country deeply divided. Last year an emergency union government was formed to deal with the coronavirus crisis, which was mired in political disputes and collapsed in less than a year due to the impossibility of approving a budget.
Netanyahu passed to Israel’s founding father, David Ben Gurion, in 2019, as the country’s longest-serving prime minister, as he held the position continuously since 2009 and for several years in the 1990s.
___
Associated Press writer Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem contributed to this report.