Day 20 of Netanyahu trial ends abruptly, PM set for Qatargate testimony

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial testimony ended early on Monday in the wake of reports that the Israeli leader would be testifying regarding the Qatargate scandal. 

The hearing ended after noon despite the original schedule calling for an extra long day to make up for hearing cancellations this week and the previous week.

Following reports that the Attorney-General's Office requested that Prime Minister Netanyahu testify regarding the Qatargate scandal, the defense requested a closed-door session to discuss the scheduling and continuance of the Monday corruption trial testimony.  

In April 2016, Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman said, “The government doesn’t know how to decide and is afraid to fight terrorism.”

The defense referenced a request sent to Walla to publish a response to the statement by the Likud. 

Asked about it, Netanyahu responded, “This is a standard press statement and not special to Walla.”

“I was accused of bribery!” Netanyahu charged at the judges.

Judge Feldman-Friedman responded, “There is not need to get into this, you’re repeating yourself.” 

“I will try to contain myself,” the prime minister responded.

The defense referenced a time when Netanyahu posted a photo to Facebook. Ynet, at the time, published an article about it, which is how he was even aware of the story in the first place, he said. 

In a conversation between Elovitch and Alkalai, the former asked the latter why photos weren’t sent. Netanyahu noted that when Ynet published the article, there wasn’t any suspicion of unusual treatment on that end. But, when Walla found out about the story through a Facebook post and published an article soon thereafter, suddenly it was considered corruption.

At around 10 a.m., Hadad left the courtroom during a break and didn’t return. About half-an-hour later, Israeli media published that two individuals were arrested in connection with the ‘Qatargate’ investigations: Jonathan Urich, a media adviser to the prime minister, and Eli Feldstein, an aide to Netanyahu who was first apprehended in connection with the classified documents leak to German daily Bild. Both were investigated already in the past in relation to alleged ties to Qatar.

One of the claims the prosecution made that the defense presented was that Netanyahu used Hefetz and Elvovich to secure adoption of his dog Kaya. Hadad asked if there was any special attention in how this news information was sent to Walla. Netanyahu responded that it was sent to everyone. 

Hadad then showed a message from ex-editor-in-chief of Walla, Avi Alkalai, in which he wrote that Kaya is not a proper dog’s name. Asked how this affected him, Netanyahu said it didn’t at all. 

Hadad then showed a tweet Neatnyahu posted about 10 years ago, which included a picture of the dog. “This was both a humane thing to do, and also a call to the public to save these dogs and find them a home.” 

“This site was supposed to be the one [Walla] that gave me special attention - look at the hate!” he charged. An article from Walla at the time had a tweet embedded in it, where the user wrote, “So nice, this one good thing that he did,” to show that this was uncharacteristically animonous to the prime minister. Netanyahu noted that other sites didn’t have such hate in them. 

Asked about a press statement sent to all mass media, Netanyahu responded that it was sent to everyone, and that Walla didn’t publish it but other outlets did. 

“This is corruption?” he asked.

“This is the big case, the one that halted a whole country for ten years,” he said.

Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, 25, called for a comprehensive hostage deal that would return all the remaining 59 captives home in one release, at the trial testimony of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Tel Aviv District Court on Monday. 

At the testimony of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his criminal trial in the District Court in Tel Aviv on Monday, the prime minister’s legal team clashed with the judges over extending the sessions for Case 4000. 

This came after the judges and Netanyahu's team noted that the testimonies for the case are set to end at the end of this week. Amit Hadad, the chief defense lawyer for Netanyahu, reiterated that in order to meet the timelines set by the court, the defense team had to trim and cut a lot of the materials.