Israeli police again urge charges against Netanyahu
JERUSALEM — Israeli police recommended Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted on bribery, fraud and other charges, accusing him of trading regulatory favors for fawning news coverage, in what is potentially the most damaging of a series of corruption cases against him.
It was the third time this year that police have urged that Netanyahu face criminal prosecution. And it dealt another blow to his teetering governing coalition, which narrowly averted collapse last month and is clinging to a one-vote majority in Parliament while edging closer to calling early elections.
Netanyahu, who continues to lead all potential challengers in opinion polls, must now await the decision of the attorney general, whom he appointed, on whether to indict him in all three cases. Depending on the decision, which could take months, he could be Israel’s first sitting prime minister to be indicted.
But for now, his position remains secure. And if he wins another election before charges are brought, he could be strong enough politically to try to remain in office even while facing prosecution.
Netanyahu called the recommendations in the latest case unsurprising because of previously published leaks, and repeated his contention in the previous cases that they would come to nothing.
“The witch hunt against us continues,” he told a gathering of activists from his Likud party.
In the new case, Netanyahu is not accused of getting rich himself, but of enriching the country’s biggest telecommunications company, Bezeq, at the public’s expense and for the sake of his own image and that of his wife and family.
Between 2012 and 2017, Netanyahu “intervened in a blatant and ongoing manner, and sometimes even daily,” in coverage at Walla, a news website owned by Bezeq, police said. This ensured “flattering articles and pictures” were published and critical content about him and his family was removed.
Police said Netanyahu and his associates sought to sway Walla’s hiring of senior editors and reporters. In return, Netanyahu, who personally oversaw the communications ministry from 2014 to 2017, rewarded Bezeq with lucrative concessions, police said.