The third session of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cross-examination began Monday at the Tel Aviv District Court, continuing proceedings in Case 1000 and led by prosecutor Adv. Yonatan Tadmor.
Netanyahu’s attorney, Adv. Amit Hadad, requested that the day’s hearing be adjourned earlier than scheduled — at 1:45 p.m. — due to what he described as “an important diplomatic call.”
Prosecutor Tadmor asked that the cut time be made up on a different day.
At the end of a break during the hearing, a protester entered the courtroom and began shouting at him: "Loser, zero, take that smile off your face." Security removed the protester immediately.
Hadad, turned to the judges and warned: "Next time that happens, the defense team will leave the courtroom in protest. This is hooliganism and blatant verbal violence."
Later in the hearing, Tadmor stated that in his opinion, the trial should be open and not held behind closed doors.
"I am approaching the chapter where the questions thus far were behind closed doors. The reasoning was invasion of privacy. However, since September 2024, Mr. Packer was interviewed by Australian media in an extensive article, which is public, and there he laid out the difficulties that he is facing in a much broader manner than was brought up here."
Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman asked: "Is that a request, or are you bringing this to our attention so that we consider it?"
Tadmor replied: "I am requesting. There is no longer justification for closed doors." The judge ordered him to submit his request in an orderly fashion so it could be discussed.
Case 1000 involves allegations Netanyau accepted gifts from wealthy businessmen. In 2016, investigators began looking into allegations that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife Sarah accepted costly gifts from Hollywood producer and former Israeli nuclear weapons agent Arnon Milchan and James Packer, a friend of Milchan's and billionaire investor. The gifts allegedly included expensive cigars, champagne, and jewelry, each valued in the thousands of dollars, which prosecutors tender is beyond the limits on gifts allowed to Israeli political officials by Knesset regulations.
On the first day of the testimony, the prosecutor accused Sara Netanyahu of asking Milchan to bring a stuffed bugs bunny animal for her son tens of years ago. Right wing newspapers and Channel 14 found that utterly ridiculous, with one columnist writing in Hebrew Makor Rishon that the court is so detached from reality that these questions are being asked while bombs are exploding in Gaza.
Netanyahu is charged with allegedly using his political station and influence for various initiatives that would have helped Milchan, including alleged tax exemptions, regulatory issues, and obtaining a US visa. Netanyahu is charged with alleged fraud and breach of trust. None of the charges was proven in the months in which witnesses testified. The judges told the prosecution that the charges of alleged bribes are unsupported by the evidence and suggested they drop those charges, but the prosecution refused.