Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to court in Tel Aviv on Wednesday for the latest hearing in his long-running corruption trial, which opened in May 2020.
The prime minister kept a pleasant face as he and his entourage of numerous ministers from his conservative Likud party were heckled by demonstrators en route to the tribunal.
It follows US President Donald Trump’s Monday suggestion that the Israeli premier’s three separate corruption prosecutions should be dropped.
His most recent court appearance in Tel Aviv comes after the return of the hostages that Hamas had captured as part of Trump’s US-sponsored plan to put an end to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing, claiming that he was the victim of a political conspiracy.
Netanyahu has proposed extensive judicial reforms during his current term, which began in late 2022, accusing him and his wife, Sara, of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods, including champagne, cigars, and jewelry, from billionaires in exchange for political favors.
Netanyahu is also accused of trying to negotiate better press coverage from two Israeli media outlets in two other cases.
These led to widespread demonstrations that only subsided until the start of the Gaza War, which was precipitated by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught on Israel.
Trump told the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, on Monday that Netanyahu ought to be pardoned in the fraud trials.
“Cigars and champagne, who the hell cares about that?” Trump joked, before asking his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog: “Why don’t you give him a pardon?”
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also issued an arrest request for the Israeli premier on suspicion of orchestrating war crimes in his government’s attack on Hamas militants in Gaza.
With 18 years in various terms as premier since 1996, Netanyahu holds the record for the most years at the helm of Israel’s government.
