‘Have you no shame?’: Netanyahu accuses prosecutors of ‘set-up’ in court tirade

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exploded with anger at prosecutors while giving testimony at his criminal trial on Monday, accusing them of “setting up” the indictment against him, citing what he alleged were spurious charges that he had an illicit quid pro quo agreement with the owner of the Walla news website, Shaul Elovitch.

A furious Netanyahu said it was “unbelievable” that he was indicted over charges he claimed had no merit. “For eight years, you’ve been dragging me through this hell. For what? Have you no shame?” he demanded of prosecutors sitting in the courtroom.

Netanyahu also rejected one of the central claims of Case 4000, that he had stalled implementation of reforms to the telecoms market in order to benefit Shaul Elovitch, arguing that he had in fact allowed then-communications minister Gilad Erdan to remain in office for an extra two weeks to enable him to implement those reforms.

Netanyahu was testifying for only the eighth time since he began giving testimony back on December 10 last year, due to multiple postponements brought on by scheduling issues, his recent prostate removal surgery, and his visit to the US last week.

In what is known as Case 4000 against Netanyahu, he is charged with approving regulatory decisions that benefited Shaul Elovitch, who was also the controlling shareholder in Bezeq, the country’s largest telecommunications firm, despite opposition from Communication Ministry officials. In return, Elovitch is alleged to have arranged positive coverage for Netanyahu and his family in Walla.

At the start of the hearing, Judge Rebecca Friedman-Feldman requested once again that Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad limit the amount of time he spends covering the over-300 individual examples in the indictment of alleged media interference by Netanyahu and his associates in Walla’s coverage. Hadad demurred, saying the prosecution should remove examples that do not appear to be relevant before he would agree to the court’s request. A hearing on the issue has been scheduled for next week.

It was one such example that led to Netanyahu’s outburst against the prosecution later in the hearing.

The indictment detailed an article published on the Walla website in December 2014, about Netanyahu’s son Avner enlisting to the IDF. Prosecutors allege that Netanyahu was involved in demanding that an item be published by Walla as part of their supposed agreement.

Hadad pointed out that numerous other outlets had published articles on Avner’s enlistment, including NRG, Ynet, and even Haaretz, which is fiercely critical of Netanyahu, and insisted that the event was in general a newsworthy story.

“How is it possible that I am indicted for this when it’s published in every other outlet, including my ‘friend’ [Haaretz publisher Amos] Shocken?” Netanyahu demanded. “For eight years, you’ve been dragging me through this hell. For what? Have you no shame?

“This is unbelievable… Did you check this?… You didn’t check anything. How can you say that is ‘special treatment?’ You set me up from beginning to end!”

Earlier, Hadad had highlighted another example from the indictment alleging media interference by Netanyahu, in which it claims he demanded of Elovitch and Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua that an article alleging wasteful spending by Sara Netanyahu in the Prime Minister’s Residence be amended.

Hadad pointed out that the request had been for Walla to include a response to the article on behalf of his wife, which Walla had failed to request in the first place, something Netanyahu said was the “minimum” of journalistic standards.

Netanyahu lambasted the prosecution for including this example in the indictment, arguing that it was totally natural that a demand be made to include a response to such an article, and pointing out that other outlets had asked for and had published a response in their articles on the same issue. The prime minister acknowledged that he had been involved in formulating the response, arguing that it was legitimate for him to do so since it affected his wife directly, but said it was his spokesperson Nir Hefetz who sent the response to Walla and to other media outlets.

Hadad also dealt with the allegations in the indictment that Netanyahu had acted to stymie reforms to the telecoms market in order to benefit Elovitch in late 2014. At the time, then-communications minister Gilad Erdan had been working on reforming the internet market to enable Bezeq’s competitors to use the telecommunications infrastructure that Bezeq controlled, in order to increase competition for the benefit of consumers.

The indictment alleges that Elovitch wanted Netanyahu to remove Erdan from office due to the reforms he was advancing, as these would negatively impact Bezeq, and that Hefetz, who is a state witness and has testified against Netanyahu, conveyed those requests to Netanyahu.

Erdan did leave the Communications Ministry at Netanyahu’s request at the end of 2014. The premier had asked that Erdan move to serve as the interior minister, after the serving minister, Gideon Sa’ar, resigned.

Netanyahu told the court, however, that Erdan had asked him at the time to remain as communications minister for an additional period of two weeks, in order to implement the telecoms market reforms he had been working on, a request Netanyahu granted.

“He requested time to complete the reform. I said, ‘Take it.’ Not only did not I not prevent him, I enabled him [to complete the reform],” Netanyahu told the court, and denied he had received any request from Elovitch to remove Erdan.

After Erdan departed, Netanyahu himself took up the communications portfolio, which he held until 2017. He claimed in court that he did so, in part, to advance diversity within Israel’s media environment. The prime minister has repeatedly recounted in court that he sought at the time to establish right-wing media outlets to counter what he says was the monolithic “left-wing” political agenda of the existing media.

Although the reform granting Bezeq’s competitors access to its infrastructure was indeed implemented, a second part of the reform requiring Bezeq to allow its competitors to make use of physical infrastructure for the rollout of fiber optic cables nationwide was stalled for some three years after Erdan left office, while Netanyahu served as communications minister, in addition to his role as prime minister. The defense has not yet addressed that part of the indictment.

“I supported the reform, I gave [Erdan] full support because that’s what interested me… to advance competition,” said Netanyahu.

Asked about Hefetz’s testimony that Elovitch had complained to Netanyahu through him about the reforms, Netanyahu described the claims as “total lies,” and said Hefetz had been trying to appease investigators when he gave such testimony, as they “were torturing him.” Hefetz said in 2021 that he was kept in harsh physical conditions in custody — including sleep deprivation, little food, and insanitary conditions — before he agreed to testify as a state witness. Despite this, he has maintained in court that he did not agree to testify against Netanyahu due to pressure.

Netanyahu also denied in court that he had met with Elovitch in November 2014 to discuss the merger of Bezeq with with cable TV operator Yes, which was eventually approved and benefitted Elovitch to the tune of millions of shekels.

The indictment claims that Hefetz arranged the meeting, which took place at the Prime Minister’s Residence, and that Netanyahu had told Hefetz to ensure that Elovitch’s arrival at the residence was unseen by other visitors.

Netanyahu acknowledged in court that Elovitch had been brought Elovitch in in this manner, but insisted that this was a widely used protocol designed to protect the privacy of visitors and to ensure that the prime minister’s schedule of appointments was not disclosed.

“The office is not a queue for a dentist appointment, you ensure separation, discretion of the meetings… [visitors] don’t see one another, this is standard practice. People don’t wait in a waiting room together,” said Netanyahu, adding that the claim “reveals a fitting ignorance” by the prosecutors as to the functioning of the Prime Minister’s Office.

At the beginning of his testimony, Netanyahu told the court he was facing medical “challenges” including being prescribed high doses of antibiotics, following the operation he underwent in December to remove his prostate, and said he would need extra breaks from testimony as a result.

The prime minister ultimately did not request an unusual number of breaks in the proceedings, but did request at 3 p.m., one hour before the scheduled end of the hearing, to finish early in order to arrive on time at the Knesset to speak ahead of a no-confidence motion in the plenum, which the judges agreed to. Netanyahu began his speech in the Knesset plenum just after 5 p.m.

The court canceled a hearing scheduled for Tuesday following a request by the prime minister’s lawyers, over a fresh crisis in the hostage-prisoner release agreement with Hamas in Gaza.