Israel Protest: Netanyahu Corruption Trial Resumes After Covid-19 Lockdown

Protesters rally outside the Jerusalem court where the corruption trial for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resumes. The trial was postponed due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Netanyahu heads back to court on Monday to face a tangle of graft charges that have underpinned years of crippling political turmoil.

This will be the second court appearance for Netanyahu, who had just been installed for a fifth term when his trial began in late May. In the intervening months, his government collapsed -- some say he schemed to make that happen -- triggering an early election that might help him in the courthouse.

While the 71-year-old Netanyahu has said the court proceedings won’t distract him from the business of governing, they’re getting underway in earnest as he will be called upon to make weighty decisions. These include how to get the coronavirus-battered economy back on its feet and engage with a new U.S. administration whose policies on Iran and the Palestinians he opposes.

Prosecutors allege that Israel’s longest-serving leader abused his position to illicitly accept -- and at times demand -- fine wines and expensive cigars from billionaire friends. As he sought to hold on to power, they claim, he sacrificed the integrity of his office to win favorable media coverage, reshaping the country’s regulatory landscape to benefit one media publisher, and weighing proposed legislation that could have favored another. He maintains he’s innocent.

At Monday’s hearing in Jerusalem District Court, Netanyahu and three co-defendants will be asked to respond to the indictments against them and plead guilty or not guilty. He will not testify.

The prime minister contends that he’s the target of a cabal of leftists and journalists who despise his nationalist agenda and want to drive him from office with baseless charges. In a video posted on social media on Sunday, he denounced the “fabricated” cases against him and predicted that the “persecution” of Israel’s right wing will translate into an even bigger victory for his camp on election day.

“Everyone understands that this is a transparent effort to topple a strong, right-wing prime minister and thereby crown a left-wing government,” he said.

Polls show Netanyahu’s Likud party still emerging the biggest by far, but with neither of Israel’s two political blocs easily able to form a coalition government. Similarly inconclusive outcomes in the previous three votes have kept the country in political limbo since Netanyahu first brought down the government in December 2018.

Still, even a draw could improve the prime minister’s legal prospects. As long as he is in power -- even as a caretaker leader, as he is now -- he is in a better position than he would be as an ordinary citizen. And if he wins, he’d be poised to pressure future coalition partners to pass legislation that would shield him from prosecution while in office.

The election was called after Netanyahu reneged on a coalition agreement regarding the national budget, leaving the country without a 2020 budget by a late-December deadline and causing parliament to automatically dissolve.

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