Netanyahu in court

Charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, Netanyahu will testify three times a week, according to a court order, despite the war in Gaza and possible new threats from turmoil in the Middle East, including in neighboring Syria.

In 2019, Netanyahu was indicted in three cases involving giving gifts to millionaire friends and soliciting favors from media tycoons in exchange for granting frequencies with favorable coverage.

He has denied any wrongdoing, and ahead of the start of the trial, Netanyahu told a news conference yesterday that he had waited eight years to tell his story about the trial against him, resenting the way it had been handled with the witnesses of the investigation.

In his earlier statement, following the court's decision last Thursday that he would have to testify in court, Netanyahu said that "the real threat to democracy in Israel is not the elected representatives (of the government), but some of the (representatives of) law enforcement, who refuse to accept the choice of the voters and try to carry out a coup d'état with fanatical political investigations that are unacceptable in any democracy".