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ReutersThis was a outstanding day for Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu holds the document as its longest-serving prime minister. Now he has turn out to be the nation’s first serving chief to take to the witness stand as a defendant in a prison case.
Moreover, he did so amid ongoing conflict in Gaza and as Israel carries out assaults in Syria throughout a tumultuous week for the area.
Netanyahu’s lawyer, Amit Hadad, first opened the defence argument, portraying the corruption trial as biased and his shopper because the sufferer of a political witch-hunt.
Prosecutors, he mentioned, “weren’t investigating a crime, they were pursuing a man”.
Netanyahu then sought to downplay the importance of the costs of bribery, fraud and breach of belief, and stress his political legacy. He strongly denies any wrongdoing.
“I have been waiting for eight years for this moment to tell the truth,” the veteran chief informed the courtroom in Tel Aviv.
“But I am also a prime minister… I am leading the country through a seven-front war, and I think the two can be done in parallel.”
Over the previous 4 years, prosecutors have alleged that Netanyahu exchanged regulatory favours with media house owners in Israel searching for constructive press protection.
They additionally accuse him of accepting expensive presents – together with cigars and pink champagne – in trade for advancing the non-public pursuits of a millionaire Hollywood producer.
Netanyahu informed the three-judge panel that Israeli media had launched “absurd” assaults on him over time. He mentioned it was “doubly absurd” to counsel the presents he had obtained from rich pals had been illicit.
In a protracted diatribe, the prime minister, who leads the right-wing Likud celebration, criticised his nation’s media for what he steered was its leftist stance.
He accused Israeli journalists of hostility in the direction of him over time as a result of he didn’t be part of the push for a Palestinian state.
Standing fairly than sitting by way of his testimony, Netanyahu mentioned: “Had I wanted good coverage all I would have had to have done would be to signal toward a two-state solution… Had I moved two steps to the left I would have been hailed.”
The Israeli PM smiled extensively when he first entered the Tel Aviv District Court round 10:00 native time (08:00 GMT) and stayed till proceedings concluded simply earlier than 16:00.
The trial was moved from Jerusalem after being delayed for safety causes and convened in a small underground courtroom that additionally serves as a bomb shelter.
A restricted variety of accredited journalists had been in a position to enter to report – others needed to observe by way of a dwell feed from a room on the ground above.
Testifying is predicted to take up a big portion of Netanyahu’s time over the approaching weeks. Last week, judges dominated that he should seem twice in courtroom this week after which thrice every week going ahead.
He is predicted to shuttle between the courthouse and the conflict room on the close by Israeli defence ministry.
Prominent ministers turned up on the courthouse in the course of the morning in a present of assist for the veteran chief and to criticise the authorized proceedings.
“The court had to humiliate the Prime Minister, has to disgrace the state of Israel and hurt the security of the state,” mentioned the Likud transportation minister, Miri Regev.
“What would have happened if they would have postponed his testimony by a few months?”
Outside the courtroom, a line of safety guards saved aside small however noisy crowds of individuals supporting and protesting Netanyahu.
Eliza Ziv, from Hadera, north-west Israel, mentioned that in instances of turmoil, no different Israeli chief got here near the PM’s capabilities.
She added that the “the hatred of the anti-Netanyahu camp, it’s not just hate for him, but for his supporters”.
Meanwhile, standing on the opposite aspect of the courthouse entrance, Siviona from Tel Aviv informed me she noticed the veteran chief as “an enemy of the people” who prioritised his political survival above one of the best pursuits of the nation.
Some family members and supporters of Israeli hostages nonetheless held by Hamas in Gaza got here to press for extra to be finished to free their family members.
Hadas Kalderon’s two kids had been launched as a part of a short lived truce final yr, whereas her ex-husband, Ofer, stays in captivity.
She informed the BBC that the prime minister “cares more about his own sins, his private sins, more than caring for his citizens”.
“He doesn’t care about the hostages. It’s very sad”.
Prior to the conflict in Gaza, Netanyahu’s trial opened up deep divisions in Israel and dominated discourse by way of 5 successive Israeli elections.
Critics of the prime minister noticed his present authorities’s efforts to curb the powers of the judiciary as linked to his authorized troubles, though he denied that.
While the lethal assault by Hamas on 7 October 2023 introduced public unity, that has largely fallen aside because the conflict that it triggered has dragged on.
In current weeks, Israel has reached a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon with the armed group, Hezbollah.
But on the identical time, there have been renewed home tensions between key cupboard ministers and the judiciary, with threats to convey again some contentious authorized reforms.
This trial shouldn’t be anticipated to conclude for greater than a yr.
Even if the prime minister was discovered responsible, he might then attraction to the Supreme Court, which means that these authorized proceedings look set to proceed to overshadow Israeli politics for the foreseeable future.
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