Labor MK starts ‘Bibi Wanted’ campaign
Margalit expects corruption investigation to be ‘biggest Supreme Court case in history of the state’
MK Erel Margalit (Zionist Union) launched a campaign with former Labor Knesset candidate Eldad Yaniv on Sunday, urging the public to push the legal establishment to pursue a serious criminal investigation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Margalit and Yaniv released a video that mocked the chances of a serious investigation being conducted by Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit and Israel Police Commissioner Insp.-Gen. Roni Alsheich, whom they say are too close to Netanyahu.
“Bibi holds them by the balls, so the public must go to the Supreme Court,” they said.
The campaign will call for investigations into alleged campaign fund-raising violations by the prime minister, misuse of public funds in his residences and the role of confidant and attorney David Shimron in the purchase of submarines from a German firm he represented.
The video complains about Netanyahu enabling his private lawyers, friends and family to make money off the state. Yaniv said Israelis had become Netanyahu’s ATM machine.
The pair opened a website to advance the effort at bbwanted.co.il. Thousands of people signed a petition on the site demanding a criminal investigation of Netanyahu.
“This will be biggest Supreme Court case in the history of the state,” Margalit promised. “A massive amount of people joining will show that people here are sick of the corrupt ways of the prime minister.”
A spokesman for Margalit said that by Monday, the website and petition will be translated into English, and the video will have English subtitles. He said translating the petition would allow people around the world to express their dismay with Netanyahu.
The Likud declined to respond.
Margalit is expected to run in the next Labor Party leadership race, which is set for July but could be postponed.