Netanyahu’s corruption trial breaks new ground

Prime minister refuses to step down despite criminal charges

JERUSALEM — With squared shoulders and a surgical face mask, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat alone on a courtroom bench Sunday as a three-judge panel heard arguments in the mostly procedural opening session of his long-awaited criminal trial.

The proceeding, which will examine charges that Israel’s longest-serving prime minister accepted bribes and committed fraud and breach of trust in office, has already brought about an unprecedented clash between Netanyahu and the country’s criminal justice system.

The trial, which was delayed two months by Israel’s coronavirus outbreak, threatens to further divide the branches of Israel’s democracy, in a nation already deeply polarized after three elections in less than a year.

Minutes before the trial, a combative Netanyahu, broadcasting live on his social media platforms, called the cases against him “ludicrous” and said the investigations were “tainted from Day One.”

He decried the process as a sinister attempt to remove him from office. He called for the trial, which could last as long as two years, to be televised so that the nation could “witness the truth.”

Netanyahu was surrounded by his most senior ministers, who had turned out in a show of support, and in the streets outside the courtroom a large crowd chanted their admiration for “King Bibi.” Supporters vowed they would never stop fighting for him.

Israel has navigated highprofile corruption cases before. Most notably, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was convicted in 2014 of taking money from real estate developers when he was mayor of Jerusalem. But Olmert resigned as prime minister before being indicted, as have other top officials who faced accusations of wrongdoing.

Netanyahu’s refusal to step down puts the country in uncharted territory, with each of his actions as prime minister likely to be weighed in light of his trial.

“The idea of having a sitting prime minister on trial, this one we haven’t seen before,” said Hebrew University of Jerusalem law professor Yuval Shany, vice president for research at the Israel Democracy Institute. “It’s a very serious situation for the country.”

Netanyahu has condemned the three-year legal process that led to his trial as a political “witch hunt” by deep-state functionaries. He has turned his ire on Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, whom he appointed.

Through the national elections of April 2019, September 2019 and March 2020, Netanyahu and his Likud party allies waged a blistering campaign against investigators and prosecutors, accusing them of bias, hubris and blind hatred.

The trial opened a week after Netanyahu was sworn in for his fifth term.