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The judges told Netanyahu to watch his tone but themselves took a conciliatory and empathetic tenor as they explained how certain legal issues were being explored to a certain point of redundancy.
By MICHAEL STARR MARCH 12, 2025 17:21
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to the courtroom at the Distrcit court in Tel Aviv, before the start of his testimony in the trial against him, March 12, 2025.
(photo credit: Yair Sagi/POOL)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exploded in a rare emotional outburst during his Wednesday corruption trial testimony when the judges urged the defense to expedite the review of every item of the indictment.
"I'm usually in control, but I can't accept what is being said here," shouted Netanyahu, slamming his fists on the stand. "They took our lives and made them miserable."
Netanyahu roared that his life had been upturned by lies and an evil indictment.
The lies forced him to come to court twice a week, at least the court could allow him to take the time to address what he asserted were falsehoods.
The judges told Netanyahu to watch his tone but themselves took a conciliatory and empathetic tenor as they explained how certain legal issues were being explored to a certain point of redundancy, and they wanted to review other matters as well.
Defense attorney Amit Hadad assured the judges at the end of the hearing that he only needed about another half-hearing to explore the individual Case 4000 indictment items, but noted that with each one, it was possible to spend a significant amount of time demonstrating their illegitimacy.
Netanyahu loses his temper
Netanyahu lost his temper again when presented with some of the incitement items, many of which were allegedly standard press releases or spokesperson communications.
To fabricate the prosecution's theory that Netanyahu exchanged policies beneficial to co-defendant Shaul Elovitch's Bezeq in exchange for positive coverage from his former outlet Walla, the Israeli leader said that the State Attorney's Office had included normal spokesperson's correspondences to create the illusion of unusual cooperation.
Investigators couldn't find anything incriminating, boomed an irate Netanyahu, but "they had to find something to stop my life."
Some of the correspondences involved requests to include the Likud party's response to a story related to them, which Netanyahu said was the journalistic minimum.
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One such incident included a Walla article about a Moshe Kahlon staffer calling him Satan.
The spokesperson's remarks, sent to Elovitch and ex-Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua, were published in similar stories by multiple outlets.
In another instance, Haddad presented a request to change the picture embedded in an article to one of Sara Netanyahu walking into the United Nations building with her husband.
Hadad noted that Netanyahu's office had asked if "there is a chance" that it could be changed, rather than demanding, and Netanyahu said that while he was not involved, it was "a very polite request."
Netanyahu noted that politicians and their spokespersons request article changes for more flattering photographs to be used all the time, venturing that if you gathered all such messages from Israeli politicians, they would be nearly countless.
"This is corruption?" Netanyahu railed multiple times throughout his testimony.
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