Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu takes the stand in his corruption trial for the first time

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu took the witness stand for the first time on Tuesday in his long-running corruption trial to give testimony.

Netanyahu, 75, is Israel’s first sitting prime minister to be charged with a crime and is the country’s longest-serving leader, having been in power almost consecutively since 2009.

“I have been waiting for eight years for this moment to tell the truth,” Netanyahu told the three judges hearing the case. “But I am also a prime minister … I am leading the country through a seven-front war. And I think the two can be done in parallel.”

The court trial was moved from Jerusalem for undisclosed security reasons and convened in an underground courtroom, a 15-minute walk from the country’s defense headquarters.

Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in three cases involving gifts from millionaire friends and for allegedly seeking regulatory favours for media tycoons in return for favourable coverage. He denies any wrongdoing.

Before Netanyahu took the stand, his lawyer Amit Hadad laid out for the judges what the defence maintains are fundamental flaws in the investigation.

The Prosecutors “weren’t investigating a crime, they were going after a person.” Hadad said.

Israel has been waging war in Gaza against the Palestinian militant group for more than a year, during which Netanyahu had been granted a delay for the start of his court appearances. But last Thursday, judges ruled that he must start testifying.

Charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, Netanyahu will testify three times a week, the court said, despite the Gaza war.

In the run-up to his court date, Netanyahu revived familiar pre-war rhetoric against law enforcement, describing investigations against him as a witch hunt. He denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty.

“The real threat to democracy in Israel is not posed by the public’s elected representatives, but by some among the law enforcement authorities who refuse to accept the voters’ choice and are trying to carry out a coup with rabid political investigations that are unacceptable in any democracy,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

On Monday night’s press conference, Netanyahu said he had waited eight years to be able to tell his story and expressed outrage at the way witnesses had been treated during investigations.

Before the war, Netanyahu’s legal troubles bitterly divided Israelis and shook Israeli politics through five rounds of elections. His government’s bid last year to curb the powers of the judiciary further polarized Israelis.

The shock Hamas attack on Israel on October 2023, and the ensuing Gaza war put Netanyahu’s trial on hold.

In recent weeks, while fighting abated on one front after Israel reached a ceasefire with Hamas’ Lebanese ally Hezbollah, members of Netanyahu’s cabinet, including his justice and police ministers, have clashed with the judiciary.

In the corridors of power since 2009, Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving leader and its first sitting prime minister to be charged with a crime.

His domestic legal woes tripled last month when the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him and his former defense chief Yoav Gallant along with a Hamas leader, for alleged war crimes in the Gaza conflict.