Netanyahu's Tuesday testimony canceled following closed deliberation

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Tuesday corruption trial testimony was canceled after a closed deliberation on Monday, according to the Jerusalem District Court.

The defense also reiterated the request to permanently change the schedule of Netanyahu’s testimonies to twice a week, given the complex security and political situations he currently faces as the nation’s leader.

Defense attorney Amit Hadad has until February 20 to file a proposed format for holding Netanyahu testimonies twice a week with one day of defense presentations.

Since Netanyahu began his testimony on December 10, there has been no week with three testimony hearings.

Closed deliberations were held on a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel Tuesday’s corruption trial testimony due to state security reasons.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued at his corruption trial testimony that if there was a media bribery scheme between him and ex-Walla owner Shaul Elovitch, he would not have allowed negative articles about the Israeli leader during the vital pre-election period.

"It's not just the money time, it's the only time," as far as Elovitch would be concerned if there was an agreement, Netanyahu partially said in English.

State witness and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's former aide Nir Hefetz used the Israeli leader's name to advance requests, Netanyahu said of communications between Hefetz and ex-Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua.

Netanyahu had said the same of alleged media bribery scheme middleman Zeev Rubinstein during a previous hearing. 

Fierce debate was held between the defense and prosecution regarding transparency and disclosure of requests to judges at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Monday corruption trial testimony.

The prosecution was angered about requests by the defense for hearing cancellations due to Netanyahu's leadership duties, claiming that they were not being told about the filings.

Hadad challenged the prosecution for not notifying the defense ahead of time about their Sunday filing regarding misattributed social media posts used as supporting information about an ex-Walla CEO's animosity toward Netanyahu.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated during his Monday corruption trial testimony that some of the items in the media bribery scheme were based on requests to Walla made by family members without his knowledge.

Alleged media bribery scheme middleman Zeev Rubinstein asked Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua to lower an article about Netanyahu and change the picture. Correspondence between Yeshua and Elovitch indicated that they believed the request to come from Netanyahu's son.

Ex-Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua told ex-Walla editor-in-chief Avi Alkilai that there was enough negative content against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a weekend that he spoke at the US Congress, according to text messages reviewed during the Israeli leader's Monday corruption trial testimony.

"Enough, there was a streak against Bibi over the weekend," said Yeshua. 

Defense Attorney Amit Haddad demonstrated Monday that the indictment against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for an alleged media bribery scheme contained an item that was a general response to news outlets and not specific to Walla.

A message sent to Walla staff members and included in the indictment as a demand was repeated in a Haaretz article, Hadad said. This demonstrated that there was not an exceptional relationship in this case, he explained.

Netanyahu said that he was not aware or involved in the circulation of the press statement.

"This is corruption?" Netanyahu bellowed in the court. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at his Monday corruption trial testimony that while he knew that co-defendant and former Walla owner Shaul Elovitch liked him, the mogul didn't have much input into the outlet's content.

Elovitch didn't influence Walla's coverage, and then-editor-in-chief Avi Alkalai and the rest of the staff hated him, said Netanyahu. With the parade of exhibits of negative coverage of the prime minister on Walla, Netanyahu said it was ridiculous to claim that he was getting positive coverage as the result of a media bribery scheme.

"Evidently ridiculous," Netanyahu said in English.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finished his security consultations following the reported killing of a Hamas operative in Sidon and returned to the courtroom to continue his corruption trial testimony.