The judges of the Jerusalem District Court express skepticism over dozens of incidents cited in the indictment against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as examples in which he received favorable coverage from the Walla news website as a result of requests made to its CEO.
The indictment itself cites 315 such incidents, but in dozens of them it does not mention that Netanyahu was involved but rather alleges that he was aware of the requests in general.
Netanyahu’s attorney Amit Hadad asserts that a large proportion of the requests for favorable coverage cited by the indictment were made without Netanyahu’s knowledge.
Prosecutor Yehudit Tirosh of the State Attorney’s Office notes that one of the general clauses of the indictment alleges that Netanyahu’s involvement in making such requests was done “either directly or through intermediaries,” and says that the incidents where the prime minister’s direct involvement is not asserted were done with his “basic, psychological awareness through an intermediary.”
Tirosh asserts that the requests were made by Netanyahu’s son Yair or his wife Sara and that Netanyahu would therefore be aware of this.
Judge Moshe Baram asks Tirosh if she is claiming that that there could have been involvement of Netanyahu without awareness, to which she says no, but Judge Oded Shaham quizzes her further, asking how then he was involved.
As a result of the questions, Tirosh requests a pause in proceedings to reread the indictment, but the judges insist on continuing.
The indictment alleges that Netanyahu or intermediaries of his demanded favorable coverage of the prime minister from Walla in return for regulatory decisions which the prime minister advanced to benefit Walla owner Shaul Elovitch’s business interests, specifically the Bezeq telecommunications company in which he was a controlling shareholder.
Hadad and Netanyahu have sought to demonstrate in the first four days of the prime minister’s testimony that Netanyahu was not involved or aware of the overwhelming majority of such requests and that Walla’s coverage remained intensely hostile to Netanyahu regardless, such that he received no bribe.
