In 2020, Benjamin Netanyahu became the first serving Israeli prime minister to stand trial:
-
And in a third, prosecutors have alleged that he promoted regulatory decisions favourable to the controlling shareholder of an Israeli telecoms company in exchange for positive coverage by a news website.
Netanyahu has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and branded the trial as a “witch hunt” by political opponents.
In Sunday’s defiant video message, he claimed that the cases against him were collapsing, but that the process was tearing Israel apart from within.
“I am certain, as are many others in the nation, that an immediate end to the trial would greatly help lower the flames and promote broad reconciliation – something our country desperately needs,” the prime minister added.
Netanyahu said he was being required to testify before court three times a week, describing that as “an impossible demand.”
A pardon, he insisted, would help Israel fend off threats and seize opportunities by fostering “national unity”.
His political opponents have accused Netanyahu of attempting to conflate his interests with those of the state.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said there could be no pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse and Netanyahu’s immediate retirement from political life.
Yair Golan, a left-wing politician and former deputy commander of Israeli forces, said “only the guilty” sought pardon.
