The fifth testimony in Case 4000 opened: Today (Monday), the fifth day of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial took place at the Tel Aviv District Court.
What is Case 4000 about?
In Case 4000 (Bezeq Walla), the Prime Minister was accused of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. The bribery, as alleged in the indictment, was due to Shaul Elovitch’s unusual responsiveness to coverage demands on the Walla site he owns—in exchange for which Netanyahu acted for Bezeq, owned by Elovitch, regarding regulatory matters in the Communications Ministry. However, unusually, the judges summoned Netanyahu’s defense attorneys and prosecution representatives and expressed their opinion that “there are difficulties in establishing the bribery offense in the case,” thus suggesting the prosecution withdraw the bribery charge.
Ongoing Updates from the Hearing:
12:52 To Haddad’s question about the Yad 2 deal documents, Netanyahu replied: “I don’t know about the Yad 2 deal and anyway don’t know about the pipeline, you can check if you want.” When asked by his lawyer if he checked, he replied: “About what will I check? About something I don’t know exists?” The Prime Minister added angrily: “There was no place to file anything against Erdan nor against me. You know this and you created a false accusation! Why didn’t you file against Erdan? It could have been made into – Case 400,000.”
12:10 Attorney Haddad asked Netanyahu if he saw a connection between the Walla coverage of Erdan or himself and the signing on Yad 2 approval. Netanyahu replied: “No.”
12:09 Prosecutor Tirosh objected and said: “He cannot during a main investigation refer to things of another witness.” Attorney Haddad replied: “I know no prohibition and I checked in every main investigation of a defendant in a case, prohibition to present.”
12:05 Netanyahu was asked if he knew Elovitch receives in real-time 800 million shekels. The Prime Minister replied: “I knew nothing.”
11:59 Judge Baram: “I want to understand another thing. In the investigation, didn’t they present to you some sort of reference of a gift?”
11:45 The Prime Minister: “I don’t remember one case I didn’t sign and you warned me not to be adamant.”
11:42 Netanyahu explained: “The documents come to me through two pipelines: professional and legal sources, and the minister or the minister in charge of the ministry itself.”
11:40 Attorney Haddad asked the Prime Minister how many approvals he is required to sign per week. Netanyahu replied: “At least ten, can reach dozens.”
11:35 After the break, Haddad moved to talk about the claim of a regulatory action by Netanyahu regarding Elovitch. Netanyahu explained: “If Elovitch had raised it – it would have been immediately rejected. It’s very unusual.”
11:31 Netanyahu referred to meetings with Elovitch and said: “They are not related to coverage matters. It’s an attempt to get him to sell the site to James Packer, maybe they still tried with Sheldon in parallel.”
11:20 Netanyahu explained: “With this, I came to Israeli politics, to diversify the Israeli media which is sick. I told Elovitch that if he can’t make the change – he should sell. He wanted to see the offer and the seriousness of the proposers.”
11:14 The Prime Minister continued to describe the talks with Elovitch: “In meetings, we talked about current events and my well-known complaint conversation: ‘Turn this site into something else.’ We didn’t talk about the question of coverage but a structural question about the site.”
11:04 Attorney Haddad asks about the 16-second call, and the Prime Minister replies: “Elovitch moves to landlines. Because I don’t like talking on cordless phones at all.”
10:49 Attorney Haddad moves to attempts to find a buyer for Walla.
10:44 Attorney Haddad presents a correspondence from Rubinstein to Yeshua where he wrote “You’re righteous, cannon, giant,” and asks Netanyahu if he knew about this correspondence. Netanyahu replies: “Certainly not. There’s an independent connection here that’s not related to me.”
10:43 Judge Baram intervenes and addresses the Prime Minister: “Rubinstein’s references, can you explicitly say you have no connection to this?” In response,
Netanyahu replies: “I’ve said that time and time again.”
10:40 Netanyahu presents options for the way Rubinstein acted: on his own accord, spokesperson distribution list, Sarah’s own or an office list, but not through him.
10:36 Netanyahu: “The prosecution’s assumptions collapse because in this significant year, I receive terrible and dreadful coverage.”
09:51 Attorney Haddad to Netanyahu: “Address the prosecutor’s claim that you and Elovitch made a linkage in consciousness and internal understanding.” Netanyahu replies: “We don’t have telepathic understanding.”
09:48 At this point, he moves to explain: “Today we hear more calls that I’m ‘Hitler,’ ‘Stalin,’ but today the media presents it from the violent protesters, not the media itself saying it.”
09:47 Haddad presents a picture of Netanyahu, with the caption “the Israeli Ahmadinejad” below and asks if “this is a site with unusual responsiveness?” Netanyahu, in response, warns of the heated discourse still present in Israeli society.
09:46 Netanyahu adds and criticizes the media’s attempts to downplay the Iranian threat: “They’ve been mocking any attempt to present the danger for over a decade. ‘This is intimidation’, intimidation of what? From developing nuclear bombs wanting to destroy us and publishing it every second Thursday?”
09:42 Haddad proceeds to cover more articles and comes to harsh criticism leveled against him by Walla’s news desk chief at the time who mentioned him in the same breath as Iranian leaders. Netanyahu claims sharply: “This is yet another article showing Walla site’s bias against me, and he proposes to learn from Iran’s tyrant who calls for Israel’s destruction and backs terror movements that slaughter Jews.” He continues: “This is the news desk chief? He’s doing enormous harm to the State of Israel by downplaying the real threat of Iran and the fight against it.”
09:34 Haddad and Netanyahu point out that the event was also covered by Ynet, Israel Hayom, and Channel One, Haddad: “Is this unusual? Did you have an understanding or corrupt connection with them? With Channel One or Israel Hayom or Ynet?” Netanyahu: “No.”
09:33 In response to Haddad’s question whether he remembers reviews of the ceiling collapse events, Netanyahu jokes: “No, I remember it made a lot of noise, literally.”
09:31 Attorney Haddad moves to address an article on the ceiling collapse at the Prime Minister’s Residence published on Walla. Netanyahu recounts: “It was during a harsh snowstorm in the country in Jerusalem. A lot of snow accumulated, there was kind of a nylon-type ceiling in the yard where we sat, and it collapsed under the weight of the snow and ice.”
09:22 Haddad presses: “The indictment accuses that the request was fulfilled,” Netanyahu explains: “When I say ‘yes,’ I mean ‘So?’ and not approval. The request was not met and did not exist.”
09:21 Netanyahu once again denies his involvement in a request from Elovitch to cover Peres’ flight costs to South Africa.
09:18 Netanyahu responds that he actually wanted to attend the event: “Although Mandela criticized Israel, I still regarded him as a historical figure and thought it was appropriate to represent the State of Israel in the context,” and emphasizes that he intended to travel, but “the costs and security complications prevented it.”
09:16 Attorney Haddad: “What do you remember about your involvement in this request?” Netanyahu responds “Nothing.”
09:14 Netanyahu laments: “Between 97%-98% of the allegations against me were not presented to me. It’s amazing on its own! It’s inconceivable.”
09:13 Haddad seeks to address article number 28 out of 315 published in the indictment. The article concerns a demand transmitted by Rubinstein to Elovitch, requesting to publish an article on the flight costs of Shimon Peres for Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
09:08 The Prime Minister entered the courtroom; the fifth day of testimony officially began.
Summary of the Fourth Hearing in the Netanyahu Trial: Difficulties for the Prosecution and Testimonial Regression
Last week’s hearing in the Netanyahu trial dealt with the coverage requests detailed in the Case 4000 indictment, wherein Netanyahu continued to deny any involvement or knowledge of them. A dramatic moment occurred when the judges challenged the prosecution to prove its claims of Netanyahu’s “general awareness” of the requests, leading the prosecution to request a recess to reassess the indictment.
The judges insisted that one cannot “expand the front” and argue claims not appearing in the indictment. Consequently, between 80 to 140 coverage requests, constituting 25% to 50% of the indictment appendix, may be removed—potentially weakening the case significantly.
Attorney Haddad announced that he would not call Sara Netanyahu to testify, which undermines the prosecution’s ability to prove involvement in Case 4000, but also limits the defense in Case 1000 (“The Gifts Affair”). The absence of Sara’s testimony weakens claims of reciprocal relationships with the gift-givers, and the defense will not be able to present supporting evidence.
