Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (New Right) said her party still backs Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but refused to guarantee that such support would continue if Netanyahu is indicted on bribery charges.
Speaking at a conference in the Tel Aviv stock exchange Sunday evening, Shaked emphasized that the Prime Minister still enjoys the presumption of innocence, and that her faction, the New Right, continues to back Netanyahu.
But Shaked appeared to walk back from the unconditional support her party seemed to offer Netanyahu in the past, suggesting that the New Right may not endorse Netanyahu for an additional term as premier if he is indicted following an upcoming hearing on bribery charges.
“The Attorney General said that his decision [to indict] was pending a hearing, and that he would be open-minded at the hearing. My advice is to wait patiently. Before the hearing, [the AG] hasn’t heard any arguments of the defense.”
“If after the hearing he will decided to file the indictment, we will have to get the party members together and decide.”
While she refused to offer unconditional support, the Justice Minister said she favored Netanyahu over Benny Gantz.
“If you ask me who I prefer, the prime minister or Gantz, so I prefer the prime minister.”
Last week, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced that he had accepted some of the recommendations by police and prosecutors to indict Netanyahu in the Case 1000, Case 2000, and Case 4000 investigations.
In the Case 1000 and Case 2000 investigations, however, Mandeblit refused to back indictment charges against the prime minister, green-lighting only breach of trust and fraud.
Mandeblit did tentatively agree to file bribery charges, however, in the Case 4000 investigation, but said the charges would only be filed if and when an upcoming hearing with the Prime Minister failed to disprove the allegations against him.
Case 1000 revolves around claims Netanyahu received expensive gifts from two businessmen in exchange for favors. In the Case 2000 investigation, Netanyahu has been accused of advancing a law to ban the Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot’s chief competitor from being distributed freely – in exchange for favorable coverage.
Case 4000 involves allegations the Prime Minister pushed regulatory changes which would benefit the Bezeq telecommunications company, owned by Shaul Elovitch, in exchange for favorable coverage from a news site owned by Elovitch.