![Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv on December 16, 2024. [Stoyan Nenov / POOL / AFP/Getty images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/GettyImages-2189640481.jpg?fit=1197%2C800&ssl=1)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reported to have screamed at judges during his corruption trial, leading to them ordering his silence as efforts to convict him over multiple allegations continue to advance.
Netanyahu attended the 17th day of his testimony in his long-running corruption trial, in which he faces three separate cases of corruption – filed back in 2019 – that include allegations of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
The Israeli premier is reported by media outlets to have requested judges to allow him to explain in more detail his counter-arguments for some of the allegations against him, saying state prosecutors “live in an alternate universe” and telling them that “you have put me through hell”.
One such case cited against him was that of illicit attempted intervention by him or his aides in the coverage of the Israeli news site Walla, with the indictment accusing Netanyahu of bribing the outlet’s owner with regulatory benefits for their businesses in exchange for the news site publishing a favourable story about the Netanyahu family visiting the grave of the prime minister’s late brother Yonatan – who died while leading a 1976 operation in Uganda – on Israel’s memorial day.
Claiming that “I wasn’t involved” in that request, the premier insisted to the judges that “after 10 years I’m allowed to say this: So many things here are absurd, but how was this included in the indictment? The charge works in a different direction here, not against me.”
Tensions reportedly became further heated when the judges told Netanyahu to hurry up and skip his response to some of the allegations, to which he banged his fist on the table and protested, leading to a judge telling him to lower his voice.
“I usually am a very restrained person, but there is an unacceptable thing here,” Netanyahu told Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman at the Tel Aviv District Court. “They took our lives and ruined them. I am carrying out my duties as prime minister at this time. I come here twice a week. But I deserve the right to shatter these absurd [allegations] and show everything is based on a complete lie.”
The Israeli premier claimed that “there is malicious recklessness by the investigators who didn’t check and didn’t question me. This cannot pass quietly.”
READ: Judge silences Netanyahu during chaos, orders him to stay seated and silent